I'm A Survivor
by TheHarryPotterPerson
Summary: The zombie apocalypse has crossed the paths of New Directions and a group led by two men named Tony and Dave. They say they're from Nebraska, and that they're on their way to Atlanta. Relationships will be tested, new characters will be met, and of course, see which of your favorite Glee Club members make it out alive!
1. Outbreak

**A/N-I have absolutely no idea where this idea came from, but I really liked it, so I decided to try and write it to see how it was received. If people like it, I'll go on. If people don't like it, I'll still go on.**

**So this first chapter is a prologue with a few OC's but I wanted to provide my idea on how the outbreak started. They might come up again later; who knows? Also, I tried being as factually accurate about hemophilia and meat factories as possible, but if I get anything wrong, just tell me.**

"Welcome home from school, sweeties." Melissa Krazinski said as she ushered her twin sons, both ten, inside. "How was school today?"

"Boring as usual." Peter, the eldest, said as he yawned and flung himself down on the sofa and grabbed the remote to turn on the TV.

Felix, the youngest, said nothing, and instead walked to the kitchen adjacent to the living room. The sound of a crinkling bag told Melissa he had gotten the bag of Apple Jacks from the pantry. She hurried in the kitchen to check on him, and he was sitting safely at the kitchen table with a bag of Apple Jacks and a jug of milk. Melissa breathed a sigh of relief, and stood in the doorway watching him slowly eat his favorite cereal, oblivious to the intruding mother. He looked so beautiful yet fragile, like a delicate vase teetering on the edge of a table. She hated that he, of all kids, had to be diagnosed with Type A hemophilia. Felix was the sweetest and nicest kid Melissa could have ever asked for.

She walked in the room, and Felix turned his head and smiled a smile that lit up his face. "Hey Mom." He said.

She returned the smile and sat down in the wooden chair next to him. "I never got an answer to that question."

Felix looked out the bay window into his backyard, a small green garden where two ducks were presently swimming about in the pond. "It was… Good, I guess. We played dodge ball in PE. Well, everyone else did. Coach Longhorn said I couldn't because of my homophilia… My hungophilia…." The ten-year-old tried to say his genetic disorder but couldn't, and ultimately gave up on the attempt.

Melissa's smile fell from her face. "I'm sorry baby. I know it'll be hard not being able to play with all of the other boys, but…" Her sentence trailed off as she couldn't figure out what else to say. Felix had heard it all.

"I got to finish the third Harry Potter, so it was OK." Despite the statement, his eyes told a different story, one of longing and hatred towards the genetic disorder that hindered his ability to do almost everything.

Melissa, tears in her eyes, pulled Felix in for a hug. "How about we go to Coldstone for dessert while Peter's at soccer practice? We can even take Molly. Remember how she was with ice cream the last time we went?"

Felix laughed as he remembered his two-year old sister flinging a spoonful of blue cotton candy ice cream into the hair of a businessman. "Yeah we should do that." He finally replied.

Melissa smiled and ruffled his chocolate brown hair as she stood up. She thought to ask "Have you taken your medications yet?" before she left the room.

"No, but I'll take them when I'm done with my cereal." Felix replied, and smiled.

Relieved, Melissa walked into the living room where Peter was watching an episode of _Phineas and Ferb _on Disney Channel. "Speaking of soccer, shouldn't you be getting dressed for it right now?" she asked the ten-year-old athlete.

Peter groaned and got up from the sofa. "You better bring me back a cup of cake batter ice cream." He said as paused the TV. "With M&M's and sprinkles too!" He added as an afterthought and rushed into the bedroom he shared with his brother.

A half-hour later, Peter was at soccer practice and Melissa, Felix, and Molly settled in to their usual outdoor seats. Melissa had cookie dough, Felix had double chocolate and Molly had cotton candy with chocolate chips. It was a beautiful day and the cool breeze provided just the right amount of cooling needed in an otherwise hot day.

"Byoo!" Molly exclaimed as she stuck her spoon in her baby blue ice cream. She shoved the spoon messily in her mouth and shivered. Melissa and Felix laughed at the toddler's growing vocabulary.

"That is blue, isn't it?" Felix said and squeezed Molly's nose, to which she laughed hysterically. "She's so cute." Felix said.

Melissa chuckled through her mouthful of cookie dough ice cream. Throughout the dessert, she and Felix played the red car/blue car game while most of Molly's "byoo" ice cream ended up on her lap. A multitude of people walked by the otherwise quiet strip mall street. It was a very fun outing. _The only thing missing, _Melissa thought,_ is Harold. _She mentally slapped herself at the thought of her ex-husband that left her for a bikini model fifteen years younger than him. She had ruined the happy-go-lucky feeling of the afternoon.

"Mom?" Felix called through her muddled thoughts. "Your ice cream is all over your shirt."

She looked down, and indeed the brown and white ice cream had spilled a little bit on her shirt. "Aww, dang it!" She said loudly.

"I'll go get you some napkins, Mom." Felix said.

"No!" Melissa exclaimed. "I-I'll go get them."

Felix rolled his eyes and said "Mom, come on. They're just napkins. I'm not going to get stabbed by a murderer or anything."

Melissa bit her tongue as her hemophiliac son entered the store and expertly avoided any dangers. He came back safely with a handful of paper napkins, and Melissa let out an involuntary sigh of relief as she scrubbed the dessert off of her blouse. "Come on Felix. Let's go pick up your brother." Felix got up and threw all of their stuff away while Melissa walked to the car parked just in front of them

Felix walked to the car, and just as he was passing through the chained area outside the store, he felt a sharp pain in his hand and looked down in horror to see a long, clean cut across his wrist where it had brushed past a broken chain. Already his hand was covered in blood.

Melissa was settling Molly into her car seat when she looked out of the van to see her son yelling for her. She could see uncut hand trying to cover the wound, ruininghis dark blue jacket.

She was there in an instant. "Felix! What happened?"

The small boy was crying and said "Th-there was a broken chain and it brushed past m-my hand…" Already the loss of blood was affecting him.

Melissa picked her bleeding and crying son up. She ran to the van, and remembered that she left her cell phone charging at home. She swore and ran into the store, yelling "I NEED A PHONE-NOW!"

The teenager behind the counter did not question the profusely bleeding boy's mother as he said "Here ma'am, there's a phone on the wall here."

She rushed behind the counter and furiously punched in the numbers 9-1-1. "Did you take your medications today, Felix?"

He coughed in her arms, and then said, "I-I was going to, but then I had to go get Peter's kneepads from the garage…"

Melissa swore again and finally the person on the other end picked up. "911 speaking." A young woman's voice said.

"I need an ambulance at Coldstone now!" Melissa yelled hysterically in the quiet restaurant. "My son has hemophilia and he cut himself on a broken chain!"

There was typing and yelling on the other end of the line before the woman said "I've just sent an ambulance to your location ma'am. It should be there in two minutes." Melissa thanked her lucky stars that the hospital was so close to the strip mall and then thanked the woman for her help and hung the phone back on the wall.

Just like the woman said, the ambulance pulled up in two minutes and the driver jumped out and rushed over to the desperate woman with two children in her arms. He helped her into the back of the ambulance where she laid Felix on the bed in the back. She strapped herself in to the chair next to it. Two nurses waited for her, and the first one, a short and squat woman with fiery red hair, asked "What type o' blood does 'e 'ave 'ere?"

"A positive." Melissa replied. The redhead prepared the blood transfusion while the black woman prepared a tourniquet for the ailing boy. By the time they pulled into the Lima, Ohio hospital, Felix already had his tourniquet applied and an IV in his arm. The nurses wheeled him in the bustling hospital, up an elevator, and into an empty room.

Melissa nervously helped Felix into bed that night. It was nearly 11:00 and she had just picked up Peter from her friend Patty's house. She yawned loudly. "Are you all set, Felix?" she asked the boy, who had an IV drip still attached in his arm, slowly dripping the necessary blood into his bloodstream.

Felix still looked pale, however, but replied "Yeah I'm fine Mom. I just want to go to bed." Already his eyes were drooping after the events of the day.

"Alright, good night honey." She leaned down and kissed the young boy on the forehead before turning out the lights.

She walked down the hallway to the kitchen, where Peter was working on homework because he did not have it at Patti's. He was currently cutting out pieces of construction paper for the 100th day of school the following day.

"Do you need anything, Peter?" Melissa asked.

Peter yawned and said "Can you get me a hot dog please?" He set the scissors down and reached for his glass of water.

"Sure thing honey." Melissa reached in the refrigerator, grabbed a hot dog from the hot dog bag, and put it and a plate in the microwave. Five minutes later, she handed her son the hot dog with mustard and ketchup. He gratefully wolfed it down. "Thanks Mom. I'm going to bed. Night."

"Good night honey." She replied stiffly.

~~~6 months earlier, in the CDC in Atlanta~~~

"I can't believe it. We've finally done it." The female doctor said to her male assistant. "We've finally found a cure for death itself."

The man smiled and nodded. "Undertaking such a project seemed wasteful at first-and to think it was behind their backs even! But seeing this turtle alive has shown my folly." Indeed, a once deceased turtle was now walking around as if awaking only from a deep sleep. Presently he was munching on a piece of lettuce in a ravenous manner.

The man was named Edwin Jenner, and his wife Candace Jenner was the woman currently staring at the turtle with as much admiration in her eyes as a mother looking upon her newborn infant. In a way, it almost was. Both Edwin and Candace had been working at the CDC their whole lives, and Edwin had known Candace long enough to know that she was fascinated with death. And that she just found a cure for it.

Edwin smiled at his wife, who was writing down notes on a clipboard with fervor. He loved it when she got engrossed with her work. He heard a buzzing, and realizing it was only a mosquito, he swatted it away. He cleared his throat, and Candace looked up from her notes to her dear husband. "Yes Edwin?" she asked.

"Do you have any idea of how we're going to present this data to the world, Candace?" he asked.

She frowned. "What data might you be talking about? We need to study brain waves, heart rate, speed, and everything in between!"

"I know all of this Candace. I just… I think it's a monumental discovery, yes. But imagine what might happen if news of this "death cure" got out. It would be chaos. Do we really-"

Edwin was cut off by his wife, who was now observing all of the turtle's movements. There was only one (the constant reach of the head for lettuce), but she seemed to be gaining a large amount of information from it. "We could reanimate the world's greatest historical figures! We could reanimate William Shakespeare and ask him how he was feeling the day he wrote _Romeo and Juliet__, _or we could reanimate Abraham Lincoln and ask him how much tea he drank in office." She stopped her observing and walked over to where her husband was standing, and she held up the miniscule vial in his face. Candace leaned in close, whispering directly in her husband's ears. "We could learn _anything._" She whispered, no more than a gasp of air in his eardrums. She swat at a mosquito and went back to her observations.

Edwin, however, was not satisfied, but said nothing as his wife finished her notes for the night. As she reached for her pencil, the vial was knocked over, and although it had a small amount of the liquid in it, it soaked Candace's notes. The two looked at each other in horror, and dashed out of the room and into the decontamination chamber, where Vi instantly began soaking them down. She also decontaminated the infected room, and in five minutes, it was over.

The two exhaled breaths that they did not know they were holding. Candace chewed on her lip and said "Well… I know what we need to-"

"No, Candace." Edwin said, a sense of authority in the assistant's voice. It's far too dangerous to be handled again. We need to never let anyone else know of it. _Ever."_ He said, finalizing the topic.

Candace wanted to protest, but did not. Together, the couple left the CDC.

~~~Melissa's House, 2 days after Felix cut himself~~~

Melissa rubbed her bleary eyes and glanced at the clock-7:13 AM. It had been two days since Felix's accident, and they had not left the house since then. Melissa hadn't slept much either, and opted instead to watch the TV when she couldn't sleep. Suffice it to say, the TV had gotten a lot of use over the weekend.

She slept in a fitful state somewhere between consciousness and sleep for an hour. Dimly in the back of her head she registered small outside noises like a bird chirping or the microwave beeping, but she ignored them all. It wasn't until the cries of Felix that she woke up.

Felix bolted down the hallway, tears streaming down his face. He ran into the den where his already fretful mother as standing up. "What is it sweetie?" she asked.

"It's Peter!" Felix exclaimed as he gulped down his tears. "I think he's hurt or sick!"

Grateful that at least Felix was not injured, Melissa ran down the hall to check on her son. When she got there, she nervously pushed open the door to see Peter lying in his bed, the sheets strewn haphazardly around it. The pillow was soaked with his own seat. Melissa's heart dropped at the dire state of her son. "What's wrong Peter?"

Despite his sickly pallor, Peter spoke as if nothing was affecting him at all. "My head hurts, and I'm _really _hot."

"Can you walk?" Melissa asked, biting her lip.

"I think so." He took a long, shaky breath and swung his legs off of the bed. Felix and Melissa reached out in case he fell, and although he was shaky at first, his stride became firm. Melissa let out a sigh of relief.

"C'mon Peter, let's go get you to the hospital." Melissa said.

The three made their way to the den. Felix went into the kitchen to grab the car keys, Melissa went to get Molly, and Peter took off his shirt and began to fan himself with it. Melissa and Felix returned, and together the four went out to the car.

Everyone first noticed the silence of the neighborhood. Not a car passed by, not a dog barked, and no people could be seen anywhere. It seemed completely desolate. Molly whimpered in Melissa's arms, and Melissa held the child closer to her.

The four got into the car, and in silence they drove to the very hospital they were at two days ago. The large parking lot had many cars in it, but it didn't feel the same. A couple cars were parked askew, as if the driver didn't care about how many parking spaces it took up. Trash fluttered around on the ground, a telling sign of desolation. The hospital was incredibly precise about its sanitation, but trash floated around aimlessly nonetheless. Most disturbing of all were the lights-of which there were none-in the multitude of windows on the façade of the building. Every light was turned off.

Melissa silently pocketed her fears and drove to the wraparound entrance. She stopped in front of the six glass doors, but there were no signs of anyone in the hospital at all. All of the lights were off, and most of the furniture in the lobby was arranged in a haphazard array of armchairs, sofas, and tables. Melissa exhaled in frustration and settled back in her seat. Something was wrong here, but there was absolutely no telling what happened. Peter whimpered in the back seat, and Melissa's frustration escalated to a breaking point, where she slammed her fist on the steering wheel. A long, loud honk echoed across the empty lot, and something stirred inside the hospital. Melissa leaned up hopefully.

Inside the lobby, a lone figure emerged from the hallway. It shuffled forward very slowly, not picking up speed until it saw Melissa's car. She could not tell who it was because of the darkness, but when it emerged she gasped in complete revulsion.

The figure pushed open the door with its shoulder, seemingly oblivious to the fact that it was a door at all. It was dressed in a green gown, one that a patient would wear. Its skin was a sickly pale color, and its nails were horribly discolored and disfigured, most of them broken off in pieces. The worst part was its face, with eyes that had no depth to them and a bloodstain around its purple lips.

Molly burst into tears at the sight of the shuffling corpse. Melissa, who was transfixed by the gruesome sight, snapped back into reality and pulled out into the parking lot. She was met by two more of them, each shuffling toward her from a side exit of the hospital. All three children were in hysterics in the back of the car. Scared senseless, Melissa nearly hit the two figures that were now a yard from the car. She slammed on the brakes, then put her car into reverse-

Right into the corpse that emerged from the lobby. The body thudded on the trunk from the impact, and a small crack appeared on the rear window. The corpse, momentarily stunned, was now on its side, beating the window with clenched fists.

Felix and Peter screamed. Felix yelled "Mommy, pull out!" and held his bawling sister.

Melissa gritted her teeth, put the car back into drive, and bolted forward, avoiding the two other corpses by inches. The one on the trunk flew off in a crumpled heap. Despite the tears streaming down their faces, the boys cheered and settled easier into their seats.

They pulled out of the parking lot, and as if alerted by the honk, a few other corpses were emerging from other buildings. Melissa swerved past them all, and turned onto the highway.

"What were those things?" Peter asked after he settled down. He then had a long coughing fit.

"I… I don't know, baby." Melissa replied. She had seen all of the George Romero zombie movies, sure. But she had a hard time believing that any of it was real.

They drove in silence, passing more abandoned buildings along the way. Peter curled up in the back, his coughing fits becoming more severe. Suddenly, Felix asked "Where are we going?"

Melissa slammed on the brakes, and stared at the sign in front of her: West McKinley High School.

~~~Mosquito, six months earlier~~~

When Jenner swatted at the mosquito, he missed. When the vial was spilt, the mosquito was there.

As Candace and Edwin rushed out of the room, the mosquito landed in the spilt liquid. It flew away, into the ventilation shaft, just after decontamination began. It had ingested some of the liquid, and now carried it.

The mosquito flew, and finally it emerged out in the cool night air. It flew away promptly.

The mosquito was pregnant, and soon after, it lay eggs in a birdbath in an abandoned house's yard, all of its offspring carriers as well. This cycle continued, with more and more carriers hatching every day. They infected a few along the way.

One such carrier ended up in Arkansas, near the Tyson meat factory. It flew into enormous chicken holding facility. There it lazily bit many hens, all of which were pregnant.

Soon after, the eggs hatched, and the chicks, as well as their hen mothers, were carriers also. The chicks had chicks, and soon many carrier poultry ended up in Tyson bags across the country. Some were in chicken breast packages, others in hot dogs, and even more still in drumstick packages.

By this time, the cure for death itself had mutated. It was now a disease that was, in most cases, airborne. Doubled by the infected poultry, an epidemic soon began. It didn't take long for the infected to die because of the sickness, and they rose, as zombies, to infect other living people.


	2. The Outting

**A/N-I'm slightly altering the Karofsky suicide bit-instead of him immediately going home to commit suicide, he goes to McKinley to talk to Kurt instead. To me, the Karofsky outing was far-fetched-I don't think all that could happen in a day.**

**This bit is the week of Regionals. This is on Tuesday, Regionals on Friday-the Friday that Felix hurt himself.**

Kurt's phone vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled it out to see who was texting him between third and fourth period. His heart fell when he saw who it was from-Dave Karofsky. He bit his bottom lip nervously as he read the start of the message on his iPhone.

**Meet me in the bathroom across from 208. I NEED YOU. Some guys saw me with you**

Kurt stopped dead in his tracks, and walked over to his locker. There he thumbed to his messages and read the entire text

**Meet me in the bathroom across from 208. I NEED YOU. Some guys saw me with you at Breadstix last week and outted me. I need to talk to someone and I doubt you'll read this, seeing as you've never answered anything else from me, but I'll be here until the start of 4th per. PLEASE ANSWER! **

Kurt was horrified. Hastily, he flipped through his contacts until he found the K's and touched Dave's number.

He answered on the first ring.

"Thank God you answered." Dave's voice was strained, as if he'd been crying for a long time, which, Kurt figured, he'd probably been doing.

"Listen David…" Kurt started, but couldn't finish. He choked on his own words, and couldn't continue. Finally, he simply said "I'm so sorry this happened to you."

A long pause. Then "Can you please come see me?"

Kurt replied immediately. "Of course David. I'm over in the 400's, I'll be over there as soon as I can."

He hung up and bolted down the hallway, getting a few disgruntled looks from other kids, but Kurt didn't care. He'd caused Dave too much pain by not listening to any of his calls or texts. He passed Blaine, who smiled when he saw his boyfriend. "Hey Kurt!" he said.

Kurt swore silently and walked over to Blaine, who pulled him in for a hug. When Kurt didn't respond, he frowned and looked down at him. "What's wrong?"

Kurt closed his wyes, fighting back the urge to just yell at no one in particular. "Karofsky's been outted. He's in the 200's bathroom, I've got to go talk to him."

Blaine's eyes opened in surprise. "Do you need me to come with you?" He asked worriedly.

"No I need to do this by myself." Kurt said, even though he wanted his boyfriend with him the whole time. "He still loves me, and I don't think my boyfriend would make him feel any better."

Blaine wanted to argue, but couldn't, and sighed. "Text me when you're done. Good luck." He leaned forward and kissed Kurt on the forehead. He walked away, and Kurt tore down the hall to the 200's. He ran halfway done the hall and stopped at the bathroom. He tried the door, but it was locked.

He knocked three times. "Dave it's me." He whispered in the door frame.

Kurt heard the door unlock, and he yelped as he was pulled in the cramped bathroom. He was engulfed by a massive hug, which he returned.

"Thank God you're here Kurt! It was awful, I-I-I-" Dave tried to talk, but burst into tears again when he saw Kurt's worried face.

Kurt settled him down, talking to him quietly while stroking Dave's back. Finally, Dave took a deep breath and spoke.

"It was awful Kurt… They attacked me and wrote faggot all over my locker, and then they told the whole school. I ran to my car and came here-you're the only person I could think of." Dave sobbed into Kurt's shoulder.

Kurt didn't know what to say. Not a year and half ago the very boy sobbing into his shoulder was throwing him around the hall, and not a week ago, he called for the nineteenth time in a month-nineteen times which Kurt ignored. "I don't know what to say." He said lamely.

Dave cracked a half-smile, saying "You don't have to. Just be here with me for now-please?"

Kurt smiled back and hugged his former bully. The latter settled into the former's crook of his neck as they crouched uncomfortably on the floor of the 200's bathroom. A couple minutes later the bell for fourth period rang. Dave sniffed and said "Should you be going to class now?"

"No I have Mrs. Whitaker's computer apps class right now. I doubt the old woman even knows our names anyway. I'll text Finn and tell him to tell her that I went home sick." He reached for his phone and texted Finn. **In a bathroom talking to Dave. Tell Mrs. W that I went home sick. **He hit the send button.

"Why did I ever do that to you?" Dave whispered, barely audible at all.

"What?"

"Why did I ever hit you and call you names and throw you around? It feels goddamn awful" Dave said.

"You were confused then. Don't beat yourself up about it-no pun intended." Kurt said, smiling.

Dave laughed an awful mixture of wet tears and coughs. "You were so strong. You stayed at this school for over two years of me punching you, slushying you, shoving you. I couldn't stand ten minutes of it."

Kurt winced, remembering the familiar feel of him hitting a locker. "I wasn't strong. I left the school."

"And then you came back." Dave countered. "With a cute boyfriend too."

Kurt laughed out loud. "You thought Blaine was cute? I guess 'fag's fuck buddy' had a different meaning to me then."

Dave shrugged, trying to forget the names that he had called Kurt and Blaine. "Not as cute as you of course." Kurt blushed and Dave took Kurt's hand which Kurt squeezed in return.

A vibration from his phone said that Finn texted back. **told mrs w. everything ok? dont cheat on blaine bro ;)**

Kurt rolled his eyes and showed Dave, who chuckled. "Tell him I'm not screwing you or anything."

Kurt replied. **Too late. We've had hot sweaty sex already and are now making out beneath the urinals. Should've told me sooner :P**

A few seconds later Finn replied. **gross. glad 2 know evrythings ok tho :P ps already txtd blaine tht u wantd 2 break up w/ him :P**

They sat in silence for a few minutes with Dave's hand in Kurt's lap. Dave shifted and asked "Did you ever think about doing it?"

"Doing what?" Kurt asked.

Dave sat up straight, his face looking uncomfortable. "You know… Killing yourself?"

Kurt gasped and stood up. "David! Did you?"

Dave stood up without looking at Kurt. "Well… I stopped at a cliff on the way here, my car a few feet from the edge. I almost did it too." He said. Kurt felt a cold lead fist on his heart hearing this. "But then I looked down at my phone, and it had my wallpaper showing. It was the one we took at Breadstix last week. That's when I pulled out and drove here. Because I knew you'd be here." He looked up and frowned. "Even though you never responded to anything I said."

Kurt felt something pull in his heart. He remembered the most recent time that Dave had texted him. He and Blaine had been making out on his bed, and he hadn't even bothered to look at it for another two hours. He gulped as he was brought back to the guilty reality of his actions. He smiled sheepishly. "Well I'm here now." He couldn't think of anything strong enough that could express his sorrow. So he kissed his old bully on the cheek. "If you _ever_ need me, I swear I'll help you. No more ignoring."

Dave laughed. "Well that's one good thing out of all this shit." He hugged Kurt and looked at him longingly. He leaned in and kissed him, this time on the lips.

Kurt let him for a few seconds, partly because he knew Dave needed it and partly, even though he hated to admit it, he liked it. Finally he pulled away and Dave did something Kurt had never seen him do before-he blushed. "I'm so sorry Kurt, I just… I mean, I know you're dating Blaine and everything…"

"Hey it's fine." Kurt said, laughing. It was funny how easily Dave could change from a hulking bear to a sheepish teddy. "It kind of made up for the god awful first kiss you stole from me." Kurt winked and Dave got redder. "Come on, I'll get you some lunch."

Dave hugged Kurt again. "That would be great."

The two emerged from the bathroom, and Kurt looked at his phone, which he hadn't noticed was vibrating. There were seven texts from Blaine

**Everything ok in there?**

**What in Barbara Streisand's closet are you doing? **

**You know, Nic's pretty cute. Maybe I should just go make out with him, seeing as my boyfriend doesn't care about me anymore :P**

**FINN TEXTED ME! ARE YOU SERIOUS ABOUT THIS?**

**Oh wait, I think he was joking. Crap I feel stupid.**

**Do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do do…. That was supposed to be the Jeopardy theme thing… Probably didn't come through on text… **

**I'll shut up now. **

Kurt and Dave had a good laugh on their way to Subway. While Dave was driving, Kurt texted back to each text.

**Everything's fine. Just wiping the tears of my ex-bully. Karma's a real bitch.**

**Probably the sparkly high heels. You know those heels just get me all worked up *shivers***

**Are you kidding? Nic's the one you'd go for if I left you? You must have extremely low standards my friend :P I'm never leaving you alone again. Sheesh.**

**Yes Blaine. I'd give up the man I lost my virginity to to a football player on the filthy bathroom floor of the 200's bathroom. We're halfway to Vegas bitch! #justhitchedonabthroomfloor**

**How long have you known Finn? 98% of what he says is boobs or sarcasm**

**Oh I thought you were just saying dodo over and over again. Pity. They're extinct you know? Kinda like our relationship ;)**

**Nah I like your worried texts. They give Dave and I a good laugh on our way to Vegas where we'll get hitched from a drug-addled priest and for good measure have rough condom-less sex on another dirty bathroom floor. Seriously though, we're going to Subway.**

Blaine responded almost immediately. **Glad I provided cheap comedy. Have fun with your metrosexual boyfriend ;D**

Dave and Kurt talked and laughed like old friends while they drove to the Subway nearby. As they got out of the car, Dave stopped as he got out of his truck.

Kurt walked around the car to find him scrabbling to get back in the car. "What's wrong?" He asked.

Dave turned around, embarrassed. "Sorry. I just saw three of my guys from school smoking over there." He pointed to the end of the strip mall.

"And to think they get as many votes as I do." Kurt muttered. When Dave looked confused, Kurt shook his head and said, "It's a phrase my dad would say when he saw stupid people on the streets when he was running for office. Nevermind. Anyway, just ignore them and walk on. After all, if they hit first you can hit back."

Kurt strutted past the three boys who sniggered at his white fringy scarf, black v-neck, and white skinny jeans with black lace up combat boots. He shook his hips with more emphasis, to which the three boys howled with laughter and yelled incredibly rude insults. They looked to Dave, and either they were too stoned or didn't hear the news yet, but the let him barrel pass without any problems.

Kurt was in line when he walked in the sandwich store. "We'll need to work on your gay strut/walk. But it'll do for now." He smiled and punched him playfully on the arm.

After they ordered, Kurt sat down with his six inch veggie delight while Dave wolfed down his foot long meat lovers sub. While they ate there was a friendly silence between the two friends. As they swallowed their last bites, the last person Kurt wanted to see sauntered smugly in.

Sebastian Smythe, in complete Warblers garb, got in line. Kurt squealed a little and Dave wiped the last bit of sandwich off his mouth. "What is it?"

Kurt snarled a little bit. "Don't ask." He got out of the booth and strode over to said blackmailer. "What are you doing here Sebastian? The bar's two blocks down."

Sebastian rolled his eyes and smirked. "Ah, if it's not The Queen himself coming to deliver the news that Rachel Berry has dropped out of the competition."

Kurt snorted and crossed his arms. "Please, Rachel is too good for your doo-wops and hee-haws. In fact, I can get her on the phone right now to declare war.

He pulled out his phone and dialed Rachel's number. They had just gotten out of school. She answered almost immediately. "Rachel Berry speaking, future Broadway extraordinaire." She said in a singsong voice.

"Hi Rachel it's Sebastian," he said "Hope you've reconsidered my offer. I've still got those salacious pictures of your boyfriend, and let me tell you he's been all the rage at Dalton."

Her voiced became low and almost guttural, primal even. "Listen Smythe, Finn doesn't give a damn about your petty little pranks. Here his now."

Rachel fumbled with her phone a bit, and then Finn was on the line as well. "Finn up bro!" he said.

Sebastian rolled his eyes and made a gagging gesture. "You just seem to make fun of yourself don't you Hummel? Look if your preppy little girlfriend doesn't forfeit in 28 hours your reputation as metrosexual jock gone questionably gay will be over."

Fin laughed derisively. "Post 'em. I don't care. You'll be the only one who looks at it anyway, you slimy little muskrat."

Rachel sighed on one end. "It's meerkat honey, not muskrat." She said like she was talking to a five year old (which truth be told, Kurt thought, wasn't a very far off analogy).

"Oh yeah… That." Finn replied sheepishly

Sebastian smiled. "Seriously, you guys don't even need me to make fun of you. Have a good day." He hung up and thrust the phone into Kurt's hands. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to purchase a few subs for our celebratory party over at Dalton. Now if you'll excuse me." He pushed Kurt out of the way when he saw Dave in the back of the shop. He laughed out loud. "Oh so you've got a new boyfriend, Hummel? At least I can get Blaine now."

Kurt was very confused. "What are you talking about?"

Dave had gotten up and was now standing by Kurt. "It's nothing. I just met him at Scandal a couple of times." He sneered.

Kurt had a light bulb moment then. "Oh you think he's my boyfriend! No no no, he's just a friend."

A look of pain shot across Dave's face, which Kurt didn't see, but Sebastian did. "Aww somebody's got a case of puppy love. Cute." He sneered and continued in line.

Dave looked ready to respond but Kurt pulled him away. "Come on Dave. He's not worth it." He pulled him out of the shop and together the two got in the car.

Dave stared hard out the front window. Kurt looked worriedly at his friend. "Everything OK?" He asked.

Dave sighed and fell back in his seat. "It's nothing. Please don't bring him up again."

Kurt looked at Dave, searching for an answer. He followed through though and the two pulled out of the parking lot in silence.

"You going to school or home?" Dave asked as he pulled onto the highway.

"Oh uh… School. Blaine and I were going out tonight." He added, and realized too late that he had said too much. "Sorry." He added pathetically.

"Nah it's alright. I'm the one that pushed you to him after all. I don't know why I'm such a bitch about it." He said as he stared straight ahead, never looking at Kurt while he said it. "Your anniversary is coming up isn't it?" He asked.

"Yeah in a month." Kurt responded, not wanting to elaborate and hurt Dave's feelings.

"Awesome. Good for you." Dave said, and smiled.

The two chatted aimlessly while they drove the short ride back to the school, where many kids were still coming out of the high school. Dave pulled up, and when Kurt got out, he saw Dave looking longingly at his former school.

"You miss it don't you?" Kurt asked softly and walked over to the driver's side of the truck.

"Kind of. But it's senior year there'd be no point in coming back for a few months." Dave said, still staring at the large double doors where people were coming out in twos or threes. "Nothing's changed here. I was kind of hoping it'd be different, but it really isn't."

Kurt followed his gaze to the doors, where Blaine was just emerging from. "There aren't as many bullies." Kurt said. When this earned a sharp look from Dave, Kurt smiled. "I'm just kidding." He waved back to Blaine, who was waving to him.

"You two have fun tonight, and Dave revved the engine, but Kurt yelled for him to stop.

"Why don't you come with us tonight? We're just going to the mall and then to a little pizza place." Kurt invited.

"What about our fabulous date tonight?" Blaine asked, swooping his boyfriend in for a kiss. Kurt smiled and kissed back, forgetting that Dave was there.

Kurt pulled away, smiling at Blaine. Blaine still wrapped his arm around Kurt's waist. "I was just inviting Dave to come with us tonight." Kurt said. "I'm not sure if you two have met on formal terms yet, but Blaine, this is Dave. Dave this is Blaine.

Dave smiled to Blaine and Kurt. "Sorry for all the things I did to you and Kurt." He said, and extended a hand to Blaine.

Blaine returned the smile and shook the hand. "No hard feelings right?"

"I hope not." Dave replied. He looked down into his lap. "You take care of Kurt. He's a special guy." Suddenly he looked back up and pulled away from the space.

"Wait!" Kurt yelled. "Will I see you tonight?"

Dave was still smiling. "Maybe." He said, and pulled away.

Kurt returned to Blaine, and the two walked together to Blaine's Camry. Blaine unlocked it, and together the two left for Kurt's house.

"Well that was fun." Kurt said happily, tucking his feet underneath him and pulling out his phone to play Angry Birds.

Blaine took Kurt's hand as he drove. "Yeah it was. It's good to see him do a complete one-eighty."

Kurt looked up from his game. "Thanks for being OK with this. You know, with him still liking me and all."

Blaine smiled distantly. "Of course. As long as you promise not to screw him in the bathroom again." The two laughed as they drove to Kurt's house.

When they got there, Finn was sitting on the front doorstep, looking distressed. Blaine and Kurt got out when they parked and they walked over to Kurt's step-brother. "What did Sebastian do?" Kurt asked, already dreading the answer.

Finn held up his phone. "He's already posted it! That lying, scheming, sleazy bastard!" Finn yelled.

"Kurt said that you said you were OK with it though." Blaine said.

"How many hits does it have?"

"He posted it seventeen minutes ago, and it already has fifty-five views." Finn said, thumbing through Google Images.

Blaine and Kurt both looked and Blaine wrinkled his brow. "Nah it's obviously Photoshopped. I doubt you're that small." He said, and when Kurt and Finn both gaped at him, aghast, Blaine said "Kidding."

"Dude, not funny." Finn said and bit his lip. "Really though, I'm at _least _a seven-"

Kurt stood up abruptly. "And with that we go inside." He ushered his step-brother and boyfriend inside, where his dad was in the kitchen reading a book while his step-mom was running around cleaning.

He looked up from his book _Hubcaps to Handicaps-A Complete Manual on How to Fix Every Car in the Universe. _"Hey boys. How was school today?"

Kurt threw his satchel over his chair and sat down in it. "Awesome for once. Dave came-"

Burt Hummel looked up from his book sharply. "You mean that boy who bullied you for three years?"

Kurt rolled his eyes as Finn and Blaine sat down. "If you want to put it that way, then yes, Dad, that's exactly who I was talking to. But seriously, he's changed a lot."

Burt looked uncertainly at his son and finally turned to Blaine. "Do you know anything about this?"

Blaine shrugged. "I mean, I saw him leave the school, and he shook my hand and everything. He seemed fine to me, especially someone that tormented Kurt so badly."

"He was outted at school, Dad. That's why he was here. So that he could talk to me." Kurt added.

Burt chuckled. And the bullier comes back to the bullied. It's funny how the world works like that."

"How'd he handle it?" Carole asked as she dusted the china cabinet.

Kurt looked down, wondering if he should share Dave's personal information. _He came to me and told me, of all people,_ Kurt thought _and besides, it's just my family and my boyfriend. _

So he told the other four people everything, starting with meeting him in the bathroom and ending with seeing Sebastian at Subway. He left out the bit about them kissing again, of course.

The room was silent, and even Carole had stopped dusting her cabinet. She broke the silence when she asked "So you skipped school today, young man?"

The four men laughed as they talked. Finn never brought up the photo; he'd already told the two parents about it, so they knew it was going to be posted anyway. After a snack, Kurt and Blaine excused themselves to Kurt's basement room while Finn ran upstairs to his. Carole sat down with her husband at the table.

"Do you think it's wise to let those two boys have an entire floor to their selves…? Alone?"

Burt, who had returned to his book, laughed and said "How many times did you let Finn run upstairs with Rachel?"

Carole smiled and said "A lot."

In fact, Blaine and Kurt were doing nothing out of the ordinary. They had made out for a little while and were now laying next to each other in boxers and undershirts. Blaine wrapped an arm around Kurt and had settled his head in Kurt's shoulder. They were watching _Chicago_for the hundredth time while they snuggled closely.

"We haven't done this for a while, have we?" Blaine asked behind Kurt.

"Not for awhile, no." Kurt replied. He had missed the days when they would watch a musical with Blaine and then do… Other things. But because of senior stuff for Kurt and Blaine's eye getting cut, they rarely had time except for quick little dates on the side.

An opening door and thudding down the stairs told them that Finn was coming downstairs. "Kurt, Karofsky is on the-" he said as he walked in the room. "Woah. Umm, yeah Karofsky's on the phone. Just thought I should tell ya. Didn't mean to interrupt." He said awkwardly and walked out of the room.

Kurt got a sinking feeling in his stomach, paused _Chicago_and reached for the phone that Finn gave him. "David?" he asked nervously.

He wasn't crying, but he sounded hurt. "It's all over Facebook now. Check your phone."

Kurt picked up his phone, touched the Facebook app, and went to Dave's Facebook wall. There were about thirty posts on it, all of them being extremely rude remarks about Karofsky being gay. "Th-that's awful, Dave."

"I want to come back to McKinley, Kurt." Dave said on the other end. There was the sound of a laptop clicking shut as Dave shut it.

Kurt chewed his tongue, thinking. "There's just no spots open… We're already one hundred and fifty over our maximum-the hallways are full to bursting."

"Could someone maybe… Leave?" Dave asked.

Kurt gasped "Dave! We are not going to kill anybody at school."

On the other end, Kurt heard laughing. "No Kurt… Like…. I don't know get rid of someone somehow."

"I've got an idea." Blaine said next to Kurt. "Give me the phone." Kurt handed the phone to Blaine, who asked. "Hey Dave? How does bribery sound?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well…" Blaine said "We've got a friend named Sugar…. She's filthy rich."

**A/N-Please read and Review! :D**


	3. The Plan

**A/N-Huge shout out to Kioko-chu on Deviantart who made the absolutely fantastic cover to this story :D**

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. Then, "What does that have anything to do with it?" Dave asked, clearly not understanding what Blaine was getting at.

Blaine wrung his hands in Kurt's sheets. Kurt glanced at his boyfriend with a look of agitation. "Do you mind?" Kurt asked. "Those sheets you're wrinkling are Egyptian cotton."

Blaine rolled his eyes but let go of the sheets anyway. "Dave?" he asked. "Are you still there?"

"Yeah." Dave replied. There was the sound of a creaking chair as he adjusted himself on the other the other end. Then he cleared his throat. "I looked this Sugar girl up… Her dad owns sixty-eight percent of Key to Shining Keys' stock, and has somewhere around seven-hundred-and-fifty million dollars from the stock market. But why her?"

Blaine smiled and sat up straight. "Do you think anyone would decline an offer of a few hundred thousand dollars from a multi-millionaire, with an offer of a new house, effectively clearing a spot at West McKinley High School?"

Kurt gasped at the same time Dave chuckled. "Blaine, are you suggesting bribery?" he asked with an amused tone to it.

Blaine shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe not. Kurt, can you get Sugar on the line?"

While the other two boys were talking, Kurt was scrambling for his phone. "Already on it." Kurt breathed, as he madly scrolled through his contacts to Sugar.

**Hey Sugar. Could you do Blaine and I a favor?**

**sure whats up**

**There's this guy we want back at McKinley. Could you ask your dad to offer some $ to someone at McKinley?**

**this is where i snort kurty wurty :P easy how much u need**

**Enough to get someone to leave town. That too much?**

**hmm… prob not. ill go ask him. who do u want gon?**

**Haven't thought about that yet. Should I call Artie to get in the school database?**

**nah dont bothr him… how bout that anoyin jacob kid? hes always askin to see my panties…**

**Gross… But yeah he'll work. Work your magic Sugar :D you don't know how much this means to me**

**kks ur welcum! sugar out! **

Kurt put down his phone with a victorious grin plastered across his face. He hadn't realized that Blaine had hung up, but he had,and he was now sitting next to Kurt again. "Successful?" he asked.

"More than successful. We're getting Jacob Ben Israel out and Dave in!" Kurt said, with an added air punch for emphasis. He inched over to Blaine and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend. Then he rested his head on Blaine's shoulder. "I like you when you're devious baby." He mumbled as he affectionately dug his nose in Blaine's neck.

Blaine had begun to run his hand through Kurt's hair as he replied "Anything for you my love."

"Mmm." Kurt replied simply. They stayed there for a while, Kurt nuzzling Blaine's shoulder while Blaine stroked Kurt's hair and kissed various parts of the latter's face. Finally Blaine said "We should probably put some clothes on for our date."

Kurt sat up and yawned. "I was actually planning on taking our clothes off." He said lazily, feigning disinterest. "But it's all up to you." He finished, lazily stretching, then theatrically reaching for his long-discarded pants. At the last moment, he turned and hungrily pounced on hid boyfriend's soft lips, pushing with enough force to tell Blaine he meant business. Although they had made out only a half hour previously, there was a new hunger as Kurt methodically worked his lips against Blaine's. Eventually, Kurt's tongue made its way to Blaine's lips also, and Blaine moaned as he gratefully opened his mouth. Their tongues reunited once again as their owners fell over from their sitting positions and began rolling slowly back and forth across Kurt's bed, their lips and tongues never parting, their soft moans never ceasing. Kurt stopped the rolling, however, and settled himself on top of his boyfriend. Soon after, the kiss was broken.

Blaine was blushing underneath Kurt's loving smile. He hoped, after college and the two began living with each other, he would wake up to this face every morning. The face in question had a sheepish grin on his face, and Blaine found himself returning it. "In answer to your question, Kurt, I would love taking our clothes off." He said arbitrarily.

"Mmhmm." Kurt said, not really listening as his mouth started searching Blaine's collar bone. Blaine let out a groan of satisfaction as Kurt stopped at the bottom of Blaine's shirt, looking hungrily at his partner. Blaine got the picture and began slowly removing his undershirt as Kurt's lips continued its journey and started making their way up Blaine's abs. His lips paused at Blaine's hairy navel where he mumbled "I thought I told you to shave this."

Blaine laughed then said "I kinda like it. Plus, I got busy planning tonight-which we seem so eager to ditch."

Kurt stared. "You'll regret that decision tomorrow." He said, then attacked the perpetrating hairy belly button, nipping roughly at it, swiftly achieving a large hickey in the middle of Blaine's toned stomach. Kurt slapped it, earning a wince from Blaine. He smirked. "Don't forget again." He said.

Blaine winked, then finished removing the offending undershirt. "I won't. Do you have the stuff?"

Kurt scoffed and said "Are you kidding? Dad gave me a box and a bottle for Valentine's Day with a long letter ending with 'Keep the walls thinner.'"

Blaine nodded. "That's where those came from."

Kurt climbed off and then walked over to the door, which he locked. Then he removed his oversized shirt, leaving him in a revealing pair of boxer briefs that held nothing back. "Better than pizza?" he asked.

Blaine blushed, and then nodded.

Kurt clicked off the lights.

Blaine woke up, feeling refreshed after the previous night's events. He was bruised in all of the right places. A sudden wave of euphoria washed over him, and he realized he had fallen more deeply in love with his boyfriend, if that was at all possible. He had to get the dominating Kurt out more often.

He climbed out of his bed with a cheery disposition and a wide smile plastered on his face. His phone was charging on his dresser, so he walked over to it and texted Kurt.

**Good morning baby ;D**

There was a couple minutes wait before the reply dinged on Blaine's phone. **Damn it Blaine. First you stay till my curfew of eleven, and then you wake me up at six. Wtf?**

**Holy crap its six oclock?**

Indeed, his phone showed a time of 6:08. Blaine chewed his lip guitily. **Oops. Sorry **** I'll let you get back to sleep then **

**Don't bother :P I'm up now**

**Yay! :D**

**You are far too excitable this early in the morning my dear beloved boyfriend…**

**I'd be offended if I wasn't so beloved **

**Awesome :P**

**My ass hurts… How the hell do you do this every time? (Not saying I didn't like it ;) )**

**Oh on to that already? ;D trust me, you get used to it.**

**Good. You don't wake up like this every morning after we do it right?**

**God no. If I woke up every morning after we did it feeling like I did after the first time, I'd be crippled. Not that I'm complaining ;)**

**why didn't you ever tell me I hurt you?**

**kind of implied when you're a bottom and 2) because, as you've now experienced, it feels so damn good.**

**Touché :P**

**Now if you'll excuse me, I need to do my morning routine. See you in art?**

**See you in art my fabulous topper ;D**

**Not replying…**

**Love ya!**

**Love you more **

The two had art with Sugar fortunately. Kurt and Blaine were already at a table playing footsy when the millionaire's daughter walked into class. She waved excitedly to the couple, who waved back, and then she sat down with them.

"That was a success!" She exclaimed as she threw her Gucci purse underneath her seat.

Blaine whistled. "You really got Jacob Ben Israel out of West McKinley High School?"

Kurt threw his hands on the table, with the look of a child whose Christmas came early that year. "And more importantly he won't be spit balling Mrs. Robinson and I in physics?"

Sugar nodded while they said all of this. "Yes, yes, and yes! You know, you two really underestimate the power of a giant one million dollar check and a private helicopter ride to his new home in Walla Walla Washington."

Blaine and Kurt applauded while a fourth chair was thrown down on the fourth side of the square table. It was deftly straddled by Puck. "Dudes and Kurt, a miracle happened in Spanish this morning. Right as I was telling Senorita Holliday ella es muy caliente this morning, I realized Jacob's wheezy breath wasn't breathing down my neck while he was staring at Marissa's beautiful rack."

Kurt stared at him with an openmouthed gaze. "Seriously, how are we the same species?"

Sugar took out a nail filer and started using it. "Those two right there were the masterminds behind it all. I just supplied the money while they were probably masturbating to Mitchell and that fat guy from Modern Family." After the uncomfortable stare from everyone, even Puck, Sugar smiled and pursed her lips. "Sorry. It's the Asperger's talking." She said.

Puck took one last glance at Sugar, then shifted his attention two the boyfriends. "Chicks, when did you start getting evil? I thought everything on that side of the fence was rainbows and unicorns."

Although slightly offended from both statements, Blaine still responded. "Rainbows, unicorns… And ulterior motives." Kurt choked when he started laughing, so Blaine continued. "Plus those unicorns you mentioned are quite the badass when you mess with them." He winked to Puck.

Puck snorted then swung his chair around so its back was facing the table and he was reclining back in the chair. "Well now that the school worm is out of the apple, its inevitable replacement is probably on his way." He said. "I mean, this place is fuller than my pants when I'm working Mrs. Irving's pool every month."

Blaine and Kurt glanced briefly at each other before shying away. It was a silent agreement between the two that they would not mention David Karofsky's return to anyone except the probable office call they would receive once he showed up, asking to return to the school he once terrorized.

"Well," Kurt said, eager to change the subject "He's gone."

As it turned out, changing the subject from anything but Jacob Ben Israel's disappearance was near impossible. Anywhere you walked people were talking about him (most usually with various expletives or terms of celebration in front of them). Despite his low social standing, Jacob Ben Israel had his roots sunk deep in the halls of West McKinley High School, and the loss of him would always have a palpable effect on the atmosphere of said halls.

By the time lunch began and the glee crew had assembled at the usual table, it was common knowledge, and (fortunately) conversation had switched to the impending Regionals performance. Rachel had managed to get all of the solos (again) which everyone was willing to accept. Mr. Schuster had told her she got two solos to spread out over the next two performances, so naturally she used them all for Regionals. They all just wanted to put it behind them, especially after Sebastian's attempted blackmail.

Kurt and Blaine got a seat apart from the club, and as Kurt hungrily devoured his mac and cheese. Blaine said "So have you asked Mr. Schue about the duet you wanted us to sing at Nationals?"

Kurt swallowed loudly and said "What's the point Blaine? Both of us know Rachel's going to weasel out as much as she can. Meanwhile we'll be doo-wopping behind her. Story of my life." Kurt rolled his eyes and continued eating.

Blaine on the other hand couldn't stomach the food. He pushed it away and then propped his head up and watched Kurt eat. "You know when I met you Kurt, you were distressed. You were hurt. You were all these other negative things. But there was one thing I noticed about you above all the rest. You were headstrong. You had been bullied beyond oblivion, but you came knocking on the Warbler's doors with a smile on your face. Now you're going to let Rachel rule over all of that?"

Kurt looked at Blaine, begrudgingly ceasing all eating. "Ok look Blaine. You've been in the glee club for a semester and a half. I am one of only five people who auditioned for this club in the first place, so I know how things work around here. At the last minute, Rachel's going to come up with this giant sob story that stretches back a few weeks right before the competition and she's going to get to sing her lungs out. I don't know if you've noticed, but there's an extreme lack of preparation in this club. And asking for anything that doesn't involve Rachel front and center is out of the question." He smiled. "Besides, we both still know our duets are better than her. We don't need a dumb old competition to tell us that. Remember 'Baby, It's Cold Outside?'"

Blaine laughed and grabbed his boyfriend's hand. "An instant classic."

"Remember 'Get it Right?'" Kurt asked after that.

Blaine furrowed his brow and shook his head. "No I can't say I do."

"Rachel sang it last year at Regionals after her heart was "broken" by Finn and Quinn's relationship." When Blaine still looked confused, Kurt laughed and said "It was an "emotionally rousing" and "show-stopping" performance."

Blaine exhaled and said "Ah ok I remember now. She burst into tears a lot and her and Finn got back together and now they're getting married."

Kurt grabbed his apple and bit into it. "See? Anything we do is memorable. Most everything she does is laughable."

In unison, the pair broke out into a soft chorus of "My Headband" and stopped when they couldn't stop giggling and were garnering attention from the glee table. "So how about this?" Kurt began. "We let Rachel get up and sing all her stuff. Then afterwards we can have our candle-lit cover of "Make You Feel My Love" and everyone is happy?"

Blaine couldn't wipe away the goofy smile that was always plastered on his face when he was around Kurt. "That sounds perfect." He kissed him on his cheek and the two started o talk about other things.

~~~Later That Night~~~

Other things turned out to be a visit to _Scandal._ Dave had texted Kurt to tell him that he had gotten his truck taken away because of low grades, so the trio reluctantly decided to meet at the infamous gay bar.

As Blaine and Kurt were flashing their fake IDs that they managed to dig up from the last time they had visited the bar, Blaine was chewing his lower lip nervously. Then he leaned forward and said "Are you sure this is a good idea? The last time I was here I got so drunk I danced with Sebastian." He shuddered at the thought.

"Where else did you want to meet? This is close to him, and he can't drive without a truck." Kurt yelled over the pumping club music. "Just hold my hand and you'll be ok." He smiled.

Before the couple could take each others' hands, a very good-looking man in an unbuttoned grey shirt that showed every last muscle came up to Blaine and pushed him to the wall, a half-drunk glass of beer in his hand. "Hey gorgeous. Wanna meet me out back?" the man slurred.

Blaine made a retching sound and Kurt pulled the drunk man away. "Excuse me, that's my boyfriend you're talking to." He took Blaine's grateful hand and led him away. When they were out of earshot of the man, Kurt muttered "Stupid drunk douche bag."

"I'm sorry about that Kurt-" Blaine began, but Kurt cut him off.

"Don't be. It's not your fault you were born so sexy." He swung around and pulled Blaine in for a long, hard kiss that was in plain sight of everyone in the bar.

Kurt pulled away, and Blaine smiled as he nuzzled his forehead against Kurt's. "You're really enjoying this aren't you?"

Kurt winked. "It's nice to have a little bit of dominance every now and then."

"Hey Hummel!" A gruff voice yelled from across the room. "Mind keeping your eyes on someone else for a change?"

Kurt smiled and turned around. "You know Karofsky, it'd be nice of you to call me Kurt every once in a while." He called to his ex-bully. The pair walked hand-in-hand over to the jock in a less-loud table in the corner of the room.

Dave slapped Kurt on the back as he sat down. "Eh, I've always called you Hummel, I don't see any need to change it now."

The pair continued to talk amicably for a while, mostly about how their year had been going.

"Well, in November Blaine and I decided to take a big step in our relationship." Kurt said cheerily, lightly squeezing Blaine's hand in the process.

Dave chuckled. "So you two did decide to do it? I saw you two leaving that night, thought it might never happen. Yeah, I get around in here. Around January, big muscley jocks apparently became "in." I've been getting laid like every weekend since then."

The two shifted uncomfortably in their seats, but put on an awkward smile. "Well, congrats I guess." Blaine said. "No boyfriend yet?"

"Nah, no one I've really fallen for." He eyed Kurt and then stared down into his drink.

"What're you gonna do once you graduate?" Blaine asked.

"I got a football scholarship out in North Carolina, so I'll be leaving there in the fall." Dave replied happily.

Kurt gushed. "Oh that's great! You excited for it?"

"Hell yeah I am!" Dave yelled loudly, and Kurt and Blaine tittered quietly. "They're great."

"Well I'm happy for you, David." Blaine said. "I've got to go to the bathroom, so I'll be back in a flash." With that, Blaine left the table.

On the other side of the table, Dave was still smiling and was tracing patterns in his glass. Kurt could tell the smile was faux and asked Dave "You okay?"

Dave, still transfixed with his glass, replied with a meek "Yeah."

"You don't seem like it." Kurt said, worriedly glancing at the beer bottle in Dave's hand.

Dave clenched his fist and slammed the bottle on the table. "Well, I'm not, ok?" Kurt couldn't believe it but there were real tears in Dave's eyes. "This whole year has been a bucket load of shit! You keep getting closer and closer to Blaine; meanwhile I'm out in the alleyway screwing some guy that picked me up ten minutes ago. I envy that Kurt! The idea that someone can love someone like he loves you? I don't see that happening with me."

Kurt was speechless. He truly didn't know what to say for the first time in his life. His former bully now had tears streaming freely down his face and he didn't have anything to say. He knew without a doubt that Dave would find a husband some day, someone that truly made him happy, but he had no idea when that would happen, or even that it was on the teenager's mind.

With a deep breath, Kurt took Dave's hand in his, and said "The world could end in a week, and I guarantee you that the love of your lif would still be out there, waiting for you."

"I cannot let this boy back into this school." Principal Figgins announced, his face drawn, his expression grim.

Sitting around his desk were Kurt, Blaine, Dave, Dave's dad, Burt, and Mr. Schue. All of them had their head in their hands with a determined expression on their faces. "But Principal Figgins, I _want _him back. Shouldn't that be enough proof to let him back?"

"I have no idea what sort of mind voodoo this boy used on you! In my country, that sort of stuff is illegal, but in America, anything is possible."

"Principal Figgins, I've been friends with Kurt since Dave started bullying, and I can tell you that Dave is a completely different person. I would never let that boy touch a hair on Kurt's head if I thought he was a danger to him." Blaine said, squeezing his boyfriend's hand.

Burt decided to speak up as well. "Dave has been over to my house since the last time he bullied Kurt, and not once did he do anything remotely threatening."

Dave raised his hand as if he were in a small child's classroom. "If it helps any, I promise not to hurt Kurt. I just really want to be back."

Figgins pursed his lips. "Fair enough, but what about the other students?"

"If it helps," Mr. Schue began "I have his transcripts from his school he transferred to after McKinley. You will see that he never bullied anyone, even though there were sevn gay people, three lesbians, twenty-eight band members, and twelve chess club members all at the school, and he never laid a finger on any of them."

Mr. Karofsky stepped forward. "And I still hold true to my previous statement that my son is a good kid."

Figgins' eyes scanned quickly over the folder and put his face in his hands. "If I allow you to do this David, could I make you sign a legal contract binding you to your word that you will not terrorize a single student here?" the foreign principal asked, already extending a contract to Dave.

Dave shrugged. "Whatever it takes to spend my last few months in high school here." He scribbled his name on the paper and gave it back to the principal.

"Alright." Thelatter said, clapping his hands together. "As per your contract, you will be shadowing Mr. Hummel for the coming week, and if I or a single other staff member sees a single rogue act, you will be kicked out of here at once."

Dave grinned, not really seeing that as a punishment. "Alright. I can deal with that." Kurt laughed at that.

The men in attendance began to slowly file out of the office, and Kurt, Blaine, and Dave were the last to emerge. As they began walking to their respective classes, Kurt grinned, Blaine took notice of this and nudged him. "What is it?"

"We have glee practice tomorrow." Kurt said, still laughing. "Do you think you can handle that Dave?" He gave his former bully a playful punch on the shoulder.

Dave sighed, a faint smile playing on his lips. "You know, I'm actually looking forward to it. I think it'd be good to make amends." His gaze was fixed on the glass window at the end of the hall, where the afternoon light was sifting through the semi-transparent glass, playing games on the three boys' skin.

He remembered two days ago, when he was outted at school, and he walked to the end of the hallway, much like the one he was standing in now, although the one he was in two days ago was on the top of the third story. Dave had walked up to the glass, ready to take a leap, distraught over the school's tormenting. As he looked down, a Calvin Klein bag drifted across in the breeze, and instantly he thought of Kurt, the boy he loved so much, the boy who he had put through the exact feelings he was feeling now.

Coach Sylvester had always called Kurt porcelain, and it was a nickname that suited him. Between his slender frame and his pale white skin that was always moisturized to perfection, Kurt had always seemed fragile to Dave, especially when he would push him into a locker and a bruise would spread in an instant. Only then did Dave truly understand how strong Kurt actually was. No matter how many times he hurt him, Kurt never took that leap or reached for that knife. He stuck through it all, and now he had been dating the boy he loved for over a year and his life was perfect.

"Coming?" Blaine called from the end of the hallway.

"Yeah." Dave mumbled as he emerged back into reality. "I'll be there in a second."

Dave trailed behind the couple, who were now hand in hand. Sebastian's words at Scandal came back to him, the ones about him being out of place because he had such a hulking figure. He looked down at his big hands, and then glanced back at Kurt's, intertwined with Blaine's. Unconsciously, Dave's own hand clenched around air. In his mind he imagined his own boyfriend, holding his hand as he walked down the halls of the school.

Dave didn't know this, but Kurt looked back as Dave was doing that, and his smile turned into a smirk. Blaine noticed, and asked "What is it?"

Softly, Kurt replied, "David's home."


	4. A Night in the Halls of McKinley

**A/N-Sorry about the late update everyone. I was watching the Walking Dead marathon all weekend. On the bright side, watching it all again got me working on the bones of the plot, and that's what I got done all weekend. Updates should be fairly frequent now.**

"You've got to be kidding me." Rachel said.

The fourteen other glee club students sat in a rough semi-circle around Kurt, Dave, and Blaine. All wore a look of seriousness on their faces as they stared at Kurt's former tormentor.

"He'll just be here for a couple of weeks. Figgins is making him shadow me to make sure he's changed-which he has." Kurt said. "In the meantime, you all need to get on your happy faces and learn to like him because he's seriously a nice guy now."

Quinn pursed her lips before saying "Look, Kurt, we're not saying that we don't believe you-if he was going to hurt you he would've done it by now. We're just not as… Forgiving as you are."

Blaine furrowed his brow at the blonde. "Why would it be so hard for you to forgive him? Kurt and I should be the ones that should be the least forgiving, but he and I are the only ones that are doing that."

Finn raised his hand dopily, before realizing that he didn't have to. Looking sheepish, Finn said "No offense, dude, but if it weren't for him, you and Kurt would have never even met. If anything, you should be thanking him for bullying the hell out of him. Cause otherwise he would've never wound up at the pearly gates of Dalton."

Santana, in them middle of glossing her lips, added "Plus we've gone through nearly the same stuff you did. We got slushies thrown on us, we got pushed into lockers, we got taunted…. We're just more careful than you Kurt."

"Enough." Will said from the whiteboard. "He's here for now, and I have my faith in Kurt that David has changed. Now we need to quit the whining and get to work.

With a very red face, David walked over to the corner and pulled up a chair. Unabashed, Kurt and Blaine took seats as far away from the team and as close to Dave as possible while the Troubletones practiced "What Doesn't Kill You."

"Sorry about that Dave." Blaine said.

"No, it's fine, I can't waltz in here expecting red carpet treatment after all the stuff I did to you guys." Dave said.

Kurt pulled a mirror out of his satchel and began to fix his hair. "What he means to say is that he's angry that everyone couldn't get over their pissy selves and seek a little forgiveness.

Dave shifted uncomfortably in his seat before saying "No Kurt, it's fine. It'll take them a while, but they'll get there. Look at Mr. Schue."

~~~End of Rehersal~~~

The New Directions had finished rehearsing, and with a little spare time they turned on the radio to do a quick jam session. It was passing 5:30, and most of the staff had left, save for Emma (who was waiting for Will), Roz (trying to find a new medal case online before heading home), and Sue (probably drinking another placenta milkshake). The team also had to wait for Carole to arrive and get fitted for the outfits at Regionals.

The entire team, even Dave, circled around while Santana sang "Wonderland" by Natalia Kills, then Artie got "Payphone" buy Maroon 5. Everything seemed to be coming together, and most people seemed to have forgotten Dave was there.

Carole arrived with Burt in tow, and the fitting began. The girls got their dresses fitted, and were gossiping about their love lives while Carole began fitting Sam for his clothes. Her tape measure was halfway around the blond before the music stopped and something else crackled into life on the old radio.

Mercedes protested loudly. "Aww man, what gives?"

A few shushed her as the news cast finally crackled to life. "We appreciate your cooperation as we come to bring you an urgent message. An unknown pathogen has spread its way into the population. The virus is at first virtually nonexistent, but over time its effects become truly known. A high number of patients have been admitted into hospitals nationwide with feelings akin to the common flu. As time wore on, most began to notice minor changes, such as deadened and yellow nails, or sunken in eyes. It is unknown how this virus came to be, but extreme caution is advised to anyone who ventures outside, and it is highly recommended for anyone to stay inside while the full cause and effects are revealed." There was a crackle, then the line went dead. "Someone Like You," halfway through its second verse, came back to life.

For the better part of a dozen seconds, the room was silent, then all at once, everyone's voices were found as many began talking about the news announcement. It was not until Sue's figure emerged in the doorway that the room quieted down.

"I'm assuming you heard the news, Grease Locks?" Sue asked Will.

"Umm, yeah we did." Will said. "They advised not to go outside; what should we do about the kids?"

"Well that's pretty obvious-keep 'em inside!" Sue said. She stalked into the room. "I may not like you kids, but I can not have this disease floating around the halls while I am with child. I need each and every one of you under watch for any signs of the disease, and if there are, then they are to be sent to the infirmary at once. There is food in the lunchroom, and extra sheets in the infirmary closet." Stunned looks crossed over the face of all in attendance. Sue chuckled. "You think I care about you? Well I don't. I do care about my bun in the oven, and I will do anything it takes to protect it."

A squeal was heard in the hallway, and a fiery ginger squirreled her way into the room. "Oh Will! Did you hear about the disease? It's just awful! You see, this is why I worry about germs and viruses sickness and disease and cleanliness." All the while she was compulsively fixing Will's collar and tying his shoe while he was trying to fend her off. It brought some much-needed humor and light-heartedness into the room.

Will left the radio on, and the group went to the lunchroom. It was eerily quiet, and everyone found themselves moving towards the kitchen faster than normal. When they got there, they found a whole box of Uncrustables PB&J, salad fixings, and assorted other food items for lunch the next week.

Kurt, Blaine, and Dave sat near the end of one table, and as the group began talking, it felt like a real lunchroom all of a sudden.

"So any guesses on the mystery disease that's got us locked up in here?" Dave asked.

"Maybe it's some harmless disease that the Warblers devised so we'd miss Regionals and they'd win." Kurt said. Blaine snorted as he bit into his sandwich.

"But how long do you think they'll expect us to stay locked up in here?" Blaine quipped. "It's not like we, or even the people stuck in their houses, will have enough food to last that long."

~~~Thirty Minutes Later, in Sue's Office~~~

The six adults in the school were crowded around Sue's desk discussing their plans while the kids were in the Glee Club room.

"Has anyone checked the phone lines?" Burt asked.

"No need to." Sue replied. "They're only connected to other phones in the school. Did anyone bring their cells?" Burt and Carole said that they had left theirs in the car, thinking that they wouldn't be here that long. Emma didn't have one, for fear of some sort of brain dysfunction. Will had left his at home to charge. Sue had put hers in the wrong track suit this morning and Roz had accidentally jumped in the pool with it in her swimsuit earlier that day. The electrocuted remains sat on the desk.

Burt chewed his lip in frustration. "What about the kids? They've got to have one."

Carole shook her head. "They started a strict no-phone policy yesterday. All of them signed this big legal contract thing. I told you about that honey."

"Must have slipped my mind I guess." Burt grumbled.

Will was biting his thumb and looking one of Sue's posters in concentration. "It looks like Carole and Burt's are the only hopes we have."

Emma gasped. "But Will, you can't go out there, you'll get that nasty infection!"

"What other choice do we have?" Will said.

Roz scowled and crossed her arms. "Put a towel over your mouth or somethin'. Or maybe that beehive you call your hair could be used as a gas mask; there's probably enough gel fumes to kill a herd of cows anyway."

The group agreed that could work, with the exception of Emma, who's normally doe-eyed expression became even more doe-y with widened eyes of terror. "Nononononono! Will, you can't do this!" she squeaked five octaves higher than usual.

"Emma," Will said, taking his fiancée's hand. "I have to do this for the Glee Club-and for us, and for the baby we'll be having someday."

"It's always about the Glee Club!" Emma yelled and stood up. "It's always 'for the Glee Club,' but sometimes I just wish it could be about me!" She stormed out of the room, her ginger hair flying everywhere.

Will put his head in his hands. "I'm going to do this."

Carole frowned and glanced at her watch. Always the mother, she said "It's getting close to eight, it'll be dark soon. Why don't we wait till morning?"

"Fine." Will said through his hands. "I've got to go check on Emma." He got up and left as well.

"And then there were four." Burt said somberly.

~~~In the Glee Club Room~~~

The group had raided the infirmary's closet and had found twelve sets of sheets and pillows. With the two sets on the beds, that gave them fourteen sets of sheets, three less than the amount of students there. Couples, it was agreed, would sleep with the same sheets.

Scraps of dinner had been brought into the room. Sugar was devouring an ice cream cone, Mike and Tina were sharing there mashed potatoes, and Joe was eating a half of a fried chicken.

The group had gotten into a circle and had exhausted nearly every game imaginable. The adults were still nowhere to be found, so they decided to work on sleeping arrangements. Rachel had, rather forcefully, dictated that her role as co-captain also gave her the ability to lead the debate.

"Alright, we have the sheets worked out. Blaine and Kurt, Finn and I, Mike and Tina, Santana and Brittany, Mercedes and Sam-all will be sharing sheets." She said

"Excuse me, but nowhere have I said I was dating Sam, and I definitely never said I would be sharing a bed with him!" Mercedes yelled out in protest.

Rachel furrowed her brow. "Oh, I'm sorry Mercedes. I just figured you were. I mean, you're always flirting with each other in the hallways, you've probably kissed a couple of times, and Sam's had to have sung you about five love songs by now." Rachel cocked her head. "Are you _sure_ you're not dating?"

From next to Mercedes, Sam said "Yeah Mercedes-_are_ we dating?" A grin was spreading on Sam's face.

The whole room's gaze was now on Mercedes. She was silent for a long time until she said "One night, Sam Evans." She sat down in her chair and Sam wrapped his arm around her shoulder, eliciting a chorus of catcalls and whistles from the group. She shrugged Sam's arm off of her and said "Oh, shut the hell up! All of you." Nonetheless, she grinned in spite of herself.

With a large smile and an Expo marker in her hand, Rachel turned back to the board, on which a rough sketch of the school's layout was drawn. "Where will we all be sleeping? Obviously, we can't all sleep in here." Indeed, the seventeen of them were crammed in trying to all lie down. "Each couple will get their own classroom." She paused to scribble initials into the five classrooms closest to the Glee Room. "That leaves seven singles. Now, there are more than enough classrooms for each of you all to get one."

"If it's ok with everyone else," Artie said. "I'd prefer if we all slept in here. Sleeping alone in a school with the thought that in the next room over two of you will be sleeping together is a really depressing thought." The other singles nodded in agreement.

"Alright then, the seven singles will all be in the Glee Club room." Rachel scribbled in the seven names. "Now, if it's ok with everyone else, now would be a great time to go to bed." Rachel said, noting the looks of exhaustion on everyone's faces.

~~~Finn and Rachel's Room~~~

"You were great up there, honey." Finn said, trying out the nickname on his fiancée. He was standing at one of the sinks in the room washing his hands, as per Sue's request.

On the adjacent sink, Rachel glowed and smiled in the nonexistent mirror. (In her mind there was one. She had memorized her face backwards and forwards anyways, although being away from her products too long would eventually change that.) "I'd imagine so. I'm a natural-born leader. Why else would I be co-captain?"

Finn nodded, and walked over to Rachel and wrapped his arms around her waist. "You know, if today was a normal day we'd be getting ready for Regionals right now… And our wedding." He said.

Rachel stopped washing her hands and thought about that. If whatever was happening outside hadn't happened, then they wouldn't all be holed up in school right now, and Rachel would be climbing into bed by herself for the last time in her life. Instead they were washing their hands in bathroom and biology classroom sinks and sleeping in their underclothes on school tables and desks. She turned around and wrapped her arms around Finn's. "Whatever happened and however long that is… We're still married tomorrow. I love you."

His face buried in her hair, Finn replied with a muffled voice. "I luff you too Rachel."

The two then pushed four tables together to make a bed. They stretched the fitted sheet across it and crawled in the makeshift bed then laid the comforter on top of it to make a cushion. Finn began to unbutton his long-sleeved shirt before Rachel stopped him.

"I-if it's ok with you…. I'd like to get dressed in private considering it's my last night before marriage." She said with a pleading smile.

Finn blinked in surprise. "Uh, yeah sure…" He thought it an odd request, considering that they'd already seen each other naked plenty of times.

Nonetheless, he padded into the closet and shrugged off his shirt and stepped out of his jeans. He was now only in boxers and a white undershirt, but he figured it'd have to do.

He knocked on the closet door. "Rach? You done out there?" The muffled reply of a yes came through the door. Finn opened the door and stopped dead.

In the middle of the room was Rachel, now only in a bra, panties, and a sheer undershirt that reached slightly above mid-thigh. The dimmed lights and moonlight from outside played with her hair, creating a halo of light and a tan color of her skin that would take any guy's breath away. She was fiddling with the clasp of her necklace, with rather unsuccessful results.

As silently as a klutz like he could, Finn walked over to Rachel. "Here, let me help you with that." He said, finally unclipping the chain from the loop.

"Thanks." Rachel said, before she was wrapped up in a long passionate kiss.

Finn pulled away after awhile and said "You're the most beautiful I've ever seen you."

Rachel smiled in his arms. "You don't look too bad yourself."

Finn rolled his eyes. "You don't mean it, but thanks anyways."

"C'mon." Rachel said, and pulled away. "Let's get to sleep."

At once it became obvious (well, more obvious than it already was) that school tables were not made for sleeping on. Even on top of the comforter and fitted sheet, it was still extremely hard.

"Not the most ideal place for someone's last night as an unmarried person, is it?" Finna asked rather rhetorically.

Rachel snuggled even closer to Finn's warm body, her recently wrapped ponytail splaying across Finn's chest. "Just let me stay in your arms, and I'll be the most comfortable woman in the world."

It wasn't an untruth.

~~~Sam and Mercedes' Room~~~

"Well… Here we are." Mercedes said, she and Sam standing in the doorway of the small math room.

Sam sighed. "Yeah, I guess we are…" He was determined to make this night worth it, and a reluctant Mercedes wasn't a problem wasn't an obstacle by any means.

"Well, let's get the tables together first." They did that and stood awkwardly by the makeshift bed.

Sam started to shrug off his t-shirt, before Mercedes threw her hands out and yelled "Stop Sam! We're not there yet."

Sam narrowed his eyes at his quasi-girlfriend. "Come on Mercedes. You've seen me shirtless at swim meets before."

"You weren't in your underwear then." She countered.

"I was in a skintight pair of swim trunks!" Sam said. "There's nothing more revealing than that. Besides, we've already slept together."

"We fell asleep while we were watching TV in your room and we were fully clothed." Mercedes said. "Look, Sam, it's not too much to ask if you looked away."

Sam was about to protest but bit his tongue and looked away while Mercedes shed her clothes and crawled into bed. "Ready." She said.

Sam turned around and stripped down to his boxers then climbed into bed, tripping over a chair leg on the way, falling across Mercedes n the process. "Sorry!" He said quickly, and then finally got under the sheet with his whole face a dark red while Mercedes grumbled about clumsiness.

He stretched his leg out and scratched his big toenail across her leg. "Ow! That was my leg!" Mercedes said in protest.

"Sorry!" Sam said. Mercedes rolled over to try and get in his arms but wound up rolling on top of Sam instead. Instantly she said sorry in return.

The two found a comfortable position and were finally situated, when-

"The lights are still on." Sam said and Mercedes groaned.

"Go turn them out then." She said, her face buried in the pillow.

Still red-faced, Sam rolled off the tables and turned off the lights, then crawled back in bed. He hurt her only once, when he reached his arms out and slapped her in the face on accident.

With no more obstacles in the way, there was no way either of them were getting up, or even moving again for that matter.

"M?" Sam asked, using his old nickname for her.

A shiver went down Mercedes' back, but she ignored it and said "Yeah?"

"Does this… Does this mean we're dating?" Sam asked, his voice hardly more than a whisper when he said the word dating,

Mercedes thought hard about that. She was way past Shane, who she had broken up wih over a month ago, but there was just some reason she was hesitant to get back with Sam. Still, laying here in his arms, she felt at ease, as if the unknown virus outside was no more threatening than an ant on a large picnic table. Despite his awkwardness when he was with her, she knew he only had good things at heart and that he wouldn't let anyone or anything hurt her. Eventually she put all the pros and cons on a scale in her mind and eventually found that the pros outweighed the goods, and figured that her answer was yes. Not ignoring the voice that said it was a bad idea, she said "Why don't we try it out and see how it goes? Not dating exactly, but having a trial run."

Sam figured that was good enough and agreed. He put his chin on her shoulder and kissed her neck. "Just remember Mercedes… I'll always love you."

She gasped and squeaked an incomprehensible amount of words before scrambling off the tables and snatching her clothes off the floor. " I _knew _this was a mistake. I should've never agreed to this." She dressed at lighting speed and she was halfway to the door before Sam said "Wait, Mercedes! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to upset you, I was just telling you the truth-"

"Yeah?" Mercedes asked, turning on the balls of her bare feet. "Shane told me that, and was that the truth?" She bit back her tears, opting instead to glare at the blonde teenager sitting up in the sad excuse for a bed.

Sam looked down. "Oh… I'm sorry about that. I didn't think about that. I just… I haven't dated anyone since you. You're all I've thought of since we broke up. Every time I was taking my clothes off at that strip club-I was thinking about an audience full of you. And every lap dance I gave-I thought of you." He paused for a second and thought about what he had just said. "Sorry if that sounded weird or creepy. What I meant was that I was always thinking about you whenever we were away. And there's nothing in the world I'd give for you to give me a chance-just one more-tonight. That's all I ask. If I overstep any boundaries, just tell me and I'll back off."

Mercedes sighed. "You're all I've thought about too-even when I was with Shane. I only started dating him to rebound off of you. As the year went on, and the months passed, I thought less and less of you, and that scared me. When he told me he loved me before Valentine's Day, that's what did it. I couldn't say the same thing back because... Because of you Sam." She burst into tears and put her face in her hands.

She didn't hear Sam get out of bed and make his way over to her, but she felt him put her in his embrace. "Please calm down Mercedes. I can't stand to see you like this. I hate it even more 'cause I did it." He said.

Mercedes hiccupped in his arms. "No you didn't! Oh God Sam, you didn't do anything, I put myself into this mess. If I hadn't stuck with you, we wouldn't be having this discussion right now. I'm so sorry for everything I did." Sam was nine inches taller than her, but Mercedes pulled him down, with a grunt of surprise from him, into a kiss.

This kiss was different from all of the others they had shared. This was full of the most intense of passions, but more importantly it was full of longing for each other. She eventually pulled away and looked in another direction, chewing her bottom lip. In her peripheral vision, she saw Sam with a smile that was especially pronounced due to his large mouth. "Wow. Taking it a little fast for a trial run, aren't we?"

She smirked and punched him playfully on the arm. "Please. We're still on a trial run. And don't you dare think differently." She said, pointing her finger at Sam. "Now get back in bed.

This time, neither were injured the other. They both just got in bed, with no hindrances along the way. Sam smiled in the dark. "We're getting somewhere."

Mercedes' smile was, unbelievably, larger than Sam's. "Yeah. I guess we are."

~~~Glee Club Choir Room~~~

"What'd you do that irritates everyone else so much?" Rory asked Dave, who was setting up his bed in the far corner of the room.

Stunned that someone besides Kurt or Blaine was talking to him, Dave realized that half of the room (Rory, Joe, and Sugar) was made up of students who had not attended West McKinley while he was the big bully on campus. "Oh, um… Well there were these slushies that we had here, and I threw them in people's (mostly the Glee Club's) faces a lot."

Quinn, who was setting down here pillow, muttered "There are also these things called death threats. You threw those around quite a bit, too."

Dave winced and said "Yeah I threw those around once or twice."

Artie's bed was made up for him already, and he was sitting in his wheelchair next to it. "And somehow we're all supposed to forgive him and let everything be chill as Vanilla Ice." He said.

"Kurt did." Dave said back. "And he's the one I did the most to."

Puck, next to Quinn, said "Yeah, but you're also the guy who showered Kurt with love and attention after that."

Dave ground his teeth in frustration, but said nothing, and instead turned to finish making his bed. He was a senior; there would only be three months more that they all had to see him. How did it affect them?

No one spoke after that, and the lights were turned off with an air of tension. Despite the hard floor, all of them fell asleep quickly, Dave included.

He dreamt of him being on a stage with a microphone in his hand. He was singing, and the entire audience was booing him and calling him names like fag, queer, and an abomination. He sang louder, but the crowd only became more vociferous in their taunting. All of the Glee Club was in the audience, even Kurt and Blaine. Things were being thrown at him, most prominent of which were slushies and slushy machines.

He awoke with a start, bolting straight up into a sitting position. It was still night outside and a quick glance of his watch told him the time was 3:30. He grumbled and got up, shoved on his jeans, and started shuffling to the bathroom. On his way he passed Kurt and Blaine's room. A lamp was on, and curiosity took the better of him, and Dave peered inside.

Blaine was asleep on the tables, curled into a ball. Kurt was awake on a counter, legs bent in front of him, propping up a book. He was in a tank top and his velvet pants he wore the previous day. His face was more loose when he read, his mind looking like it was drifting away, a balloon caught in the maelstrom of a literary thunderstorm. It looked ageless, and simply put, he was beautiful.

Against his better instincts, Dave found his shoulder nudging the door open. Kurt looked up to see the hulking football player standing awkwardly in the doorway. "May I help you?" Kurt asked.

"Couldn't sleep." Dave replied. "I was going to get some water, but I saw your light on."

Kurt stuck a strip of paper in his book and closed it. "Yeah, I couldn't sleep either. I checked out a book though."

Dave laughed. "What do you mean 'checked it out?'" he asked.

Kurt blushed. "Well, I got the book from the library, and I kind o… Checked it out. Like on the system."

Dave grinned and went over to sit with Kurt. "You know, some things about you will never change."

Kurt snorted. "Yeah, well if checking out books properly from the library is one of those things, I'm not complaining."

They sat in silence for a while before Kurt asked "How did the others handle being in a room with you?"

Dave winced, but chuckled a little. "How do you think it went? The old members are pissed at me and the newer ones seem to be caught in the middle."

Kurt swallowed loudly and looked up at the wall on the other side of the room. "I'm sorry I brought you into all of this."

Dave cocked his head at Kurt. What could he possibly be sorry about? "Sorry for what? If you hadn't worked so hard to get me here, I wouldn't be here with you; I might even be dead… You know, if I had killed myself."

Kurt closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. When he opened them, he said "I'm glad you didn't commit suicide, David. And somewhere inside all of them, they would be too. If you had, it'd be partially they're fault after all. But it would mostly be mine."

"That's not true!" Dave said, his voice dripping with vehemence. "You're the rock that kept me here." He finished rather meekly.

With a start, Blaine woke up. His normally styled hair was beginning to come undone as the gel lost its touch. "Is everything ok Blaine?" He yelled rather loudly. The room came into focus and he saw Dave sitting there with his boyfriend. "Oh hi Dave."

Kurt laughed at his boyfriend's disheveled appearance. Dave noticed how his laugh changed when he was around Blaine. There was an extra note or a different pitch of the laugh that truly gave the impression that Kurt was happy. "It's alright, hun." He silently jumped off the counter he was sitting on and stalked over to him. "Everything's ok. Go back to sleep now."

An impish little grin spread over Blaine's face. "Not until you've kissed me good night."

Kurt rolled his eyes, but smiled as he leaned in and pecked Blaine on the lips. "Good night Blaine."

Clearly not satisfied (and now more thoroughly awake), Blaine pulled Kurt just millimeters from his face. "Not good enough for me." With force, Blaine pulled Kurt in for a longer make out session.

Feeling very awkward and out of place, Dave creeped out of the room and stood in the hallway, not remembering why he got up for a second. _Water _he thought, then started to go to the bathroom. He didn't make it ten paces before he heard the door he's just left open and close again. Kurt dashed to meet up with Dave. "Sorry about that. Blaine can get very out of it at times."

Dave grinned. "And clearly very horny." He said.

Kurt's face went scarlet and mumbled something along the line of "Yeah, I'll deal with _that_ when I get back" before looking up and asking with a perky cheerfulness where they were going.

"We're going on a magical journey across the Atlantic to save the mystic treasure from the evil king." Dave said in badly-done British accent. Kurt giggled then Dave said "Nah, I'm just getting some water."

"I wouldn't mind some myself." Kurt said. "If you mind me tagging along then I'll still be here."

Dave laughed as they approached the bathroom doors which he shoved open. Instantly the smell of death hit them like a brick wall and the sound of someone retching became startlingly in focus.

A hand covered his nose as Dave said "What the hell happened in here?"

"Something died and was left to rot apparently." Kurt replied. The sound of someone vomiting came again and they saw that the second door down was filled by a sandal-wearing occupant.

"Joe." Kurt mumbled as he walked up to the door and politely pulled it open. Indeed, the dreadlocked teen was keeled over the toilet bowl, arms wrapped around his abdomen as he threw up what was apparently his breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Unsure of what to do, Kurt grabbed a couple of stray dreadlocks as the boy hacked up a large amount of phlegm. Finally the retching stopped and Joe flushed the toilet with heavy breathing. The smell of the vomit slowly receded with the flushed waste, but there was a lingering stench that permeated the air.

When he finally caught his breath, Kurt said "What happened here, Joe?"

He took a few final gulps of air before saying "I have no clue. One moment I was feeling fine in my sleep. The next I was nearly puking in the hall before I got here. I barely managed to get it all in the toilet."

"Well I appreciate the effort." Kurt said dryly, imagining the sanitary horror of vomit spewed down a hallway.

"Do you know where or what it came from?" Dave asked from outside the stall.

"You might want to check the trash for the answer on that one." Joe replied.

Afraid of what they would find, Kurt and Dave approached the trash can with caution. Laying on top of all of the paper towels were the remains of he chicken Joe ate for dinner. "Look closer." Joe called from the stalls.

They did. At first it looked like an ordinary fried chicken wing. But upon closer investigation, there was a light green color along the edges of the meat, hardly noticeable due to the small color difference. When you saw the green, it was utterly revolting, Dave thought. It came straight out of a horror movie.

"So you had some bad meat?" Kurt guessed.

Joe was about to reply when he leaned in and let slip another round of vomiting. It was bizarre how much he was getting up. When it finally passed Joe said "Yeah I guess so. I don't know why I didn't notice it while I was eating it. I wish I had." Joe said bitterly.

"We all do." Dave said, nauseated by the amount of sick and death in the air. He remembered Sue mentioning being sick. "You know that we'll have to tell the teachers, right?"

Joe hacked up phlegm one last time. "Yeah." He said when he was done. "Ugh. Every bone in my body aches. And nearly every other organ is hacking something up."

"I'll go get Schuster or my dad." Kurt said. "We'll se what we have in the infirmary." With that, Kurt was gone, leaving Dave with a boy he hardly knew.

He walked over to the stall. Joe's vomiting seemed to have calmed down a bit, and he was now sitting on the floor with his arms across his stomach. His grey long-sleeved shirt was unbuttoned as much as it could and he was fanning himself, clearly overheated with the night's events. Dave had no clue what to say, so he settled for small talk. "The name's Joe, right?"

He simply nodded in reply. "Do you believe them? That I'm some horrible monster?" Dave pursued.

"I don't know. You seem like a nice guy. You did admit to doing all that stuff to them though. And you can't exactly take it back without putting yourself on the cross or asking fro forgiveness from Him." Joe replied.

Dave remembered Kurt mentioning that there was a Jesus nut that joined the Glee Club. He was unsurprised to find out it was Dreadlocks Guy. Kurt also mentioned he had issues sending a telegram to Brittany from Santana. "Yeah, I guess so." He replied lamely.

"How'd you make nice with Kurt so easily?" Joe asked abruptly.

Dave exhaled. He was unsure if he wanted to spill all his personal information with someone who might criticize it. Eventually he figured he could and told him the whole story. The whole thing, from beginning to end, starting with him bullying everyone, especially Kurt. He talked about the look on Kurt's face and the pang it would send through his heart. Only now did he realize they were feelings for the boy. Dave enven told him of when he kissed Kurt in the locker room, frustrated and confused about everything, and the following months that were free of Kurt. There was Santana, with her idea to make each other their beards to cover up their true sexuality. Kurt returned with Dave feeling much more certain of himself and his wants. It all culminated with him being outted at school this week, and his decision not to kill himself because of Kurt.

"What does it feel like?" Joe asked.

Dave looked at the dreadlocked boy. "What do you mean?"

Joe played with his dreadlock awhile before answering. "Well, what does it feel like to be gay?"

"t feels just the same as it does straight people, I'd imagine. But I'm not the best person you should ask for that." Dave replied instantly. He hadn't been gay long, but he knew the answer to that one. "I thought you were over that, with the whole telegram to Brittany thing?"

"I am… I was just wondering." Joe replied simply.

~~~Kurt, in the hallways~~~

Kurt dashed down the halls, not quite sure of where to go. He found himself outside of Sue's office, but before he pushed open the door, he realized Sue would freak out if she found out that one of the students was sick. So he turned around and started making his way to Will's office.

When he got there, he politely knocked on the door. When that didn't work, he shoved it open as quietly as possible, knowing full well that one of the hinges squeaked. Will was apparently a light sleeper as he was roused into consciousness by the door opening. "What is it?" He asked, not unlike Blaine had only a half an hour ago.

"Umm, Mr. Schuester… We kind of have a problem in the bathroom." Kurt said.

Will ran his hand through his unkempt curly hair before saying "What kind of problem?"

"He's kind of throwing up a lot in the bathroom. We think it's food poisoning because the chicken he was eating had a greenish tinge to it." Kurt said.

"Does he need any medicine?" Emma asked from next to Will. Both teacher and student alike jumped up in surprise, unaware that the doe-eyed guidance counselor was awake.

Once his heart rate settled down, Kurt said that medicine would be a good thing, so the two adults and Kurt went to the infirmary in the school to grab some medications. Will clicked on the lights and the three strode over to the cabinet with all of the medicines.

"Now, what kind of symptoms is Joseph having?" Emma asked, picking up bottle after bottle.

"I don't know. Dave and I just walked in and he was throwing up in the toilet. He's with him now." Kurt said. "What about Tums?" He held up the bottle of tablets.

Emma shook her head. "Those are mostly for upset stomachs."

"I don't know that stomach looked pretty upset to me." Kurt muttered.

Emma exhaled loudly in frustration. "Those will have to do. This school doesn't have half the medicines they should have."

The three went to the bathroom where Joe seemed a little better; or at least he wasn't throwing up anymore. He took a few Tums and they all escorted him back to the Glee Club room where he curled back up under the sheets and promptly fell back asleep, even though he still had the shivers. Kurt, Emma, and Will went back to their room andDave took off his jeans and tried going back to sleep himself.

~~~Morning~~~

It was finally morning. Most hadn't slept well and were grateful for the early morning rays of sunshine creeping in through all the windows. Despite the somber mood of the previous day, many seemed to be in higher spirits. The duos of Rachel and Finn as well as Sam and Mercedes seemed to be far more couple-y today; any problems or issues seemed to have been resolved in the sleepless night. Joe's absence was the only thing weighing on all of their shoulders today.

Everyone got their breakfasts, from scrambled eggs off the skillet to French Toast from the freezers. They all sat down and ate it, chatting amicably among each other.

Will finally stood up near the end, bringing the room into silence. "Alright. Now, as many of you know, Joe is laid up in the hospital from what is presumably food poisoning. Do not eat any of the chicken unless you want to throw up for hours." There was a low chuckle from the crowd at this.

Finn raised his hand. Will nodded to him and he stood up. "Umm, well… As you know, this afternoon was when Rachel and I were planning on getting married. But then this came along. Rachel and I still wanted to get a ceremonial marriage here. I mean, most of the people we'd invite are already here anyway."

The population of the lunchroom just accepted this. Most of them were still adamantly against Rachel and Finn getting married, but they were still going to support them, especially if they still wanted to get fake married through all of this. Finn smiled weakly then sat back down.

Will still held the floor and the students all looked at him again. "All of the adults have constantly checked the radio for news, but so far nothing has been said. Which is why after this breakfast I will be going out to get a phone from the Hummel-Hudson car."

Understandably, there was a chorus of protests from the group, but Will eventually settled them all down and told them the plan; after all, if Joe had the disease that they were all hiding from, they were more than likely infected anyway. Much like the news of Finn and Rachel still getting married, they all just accepted it because they couldn't stop it anyway.

Breakfast was then over, and the group slowly dispersed. Carole and Burt's car was out back near the pool, so most everyone headed that way.

Once there, everyone tried halfheartedly to convince Will to not try, knowing full well he'd still do it. They wanted the phone anyway.

~~~In the Parking Lot~~~

Will left the school and strode over to the white Camry near the back of the parking lot. He thought he heard a rustle in the bushes, but he chalked it up to the wind blowing in the bushes. He got to the car and unlocked it with the keys Burt had given him. On the passenger seat was an iPhone with the charger in the center console. He grabbed both of them, but dropped the charger on the ground while he was getting out of the car. He picked it up-

And was met with the gaze of another person. Although this person was not a normal person. He wore normal clothing-a suit and pants- but he walked with only one shoe and with a shuffling motion. His skin was severely pale, accentuated by the amount of blood around his mouth. Most frightening of all were the eyes-wide, open, unblinking, but without any depth to them, as if he did not have any emotion.

He was only a few feet away, and when he saw Will he let loose a wet growl, and strode the last few feet to the stunned Glee teacher. He leapt on top of him, prompting Will to yell. Only when the man bit into his wrist did Will scream.

~~~In the hallway~~~

There was a low rumble of noise as they all talked to each other. Brittany was talking to her girlfriend by a locker.

"What do you think it is? The disease, I mean, not the flavor of ice cream I had." Brittany said.

Santana let loose a small laugh. "Obviously it just makes you throw up a lot."

Brittany rolled her eyes. "But doesn't like AIDS do that or something? It's gotta do something else."

Santana pushed the idea away, but it left a nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach. What is she was right? What came after the vomiting, if anything? It obviously wasn't something people had heard of, least of all AIDS.

The answer came when they all heard Will's first scream come from the parking lot. The room went silent. Then he screamed again.

Roz was the first to go into action, running in and out of the pool room with a speed that made you wonder if she had one a gold medal in the Olympics for running. She had with her a pool net, its long handle slicing through the crowd. Everyone followed her outside, worried for their teachers.

~~~By the Camry~~~

Will screamed again. His arm was on fire and his energy was depleted. He tried shoving the man off of him, but it only made him angrier. He growled and moved from the arm and dug into the abdomen, eliciting another scream from Will as the man bit a chunk of Will's stomach, staining the sweater vest he was wearing.

~~~Roz~~~

Roz saw it before she even got there. She saw the person on top of Will gnawing on Will's arm, and the screams of pain that Will let loose from beneath him. She threw the end of the pool net towards the man.

A pool net is an interesting thing. It is a feature at any pool in the world and its shape is very intriguing. It is a long pole with a net akin to that of a fish tank net. The size of the net can vary greatly, as can the length of the handle. The length and size of both depend on the size of the pool. Roz was holding a sixteen-foot long one, and thrown with the right amount of accuracy and speed it can seriously injure someone, or in the case of the man on top of Will, it could kill him-again.

The end of the net hit the man square in the forehead as he looked up. It went all the way through his head, and about three feet sunk its way into his head. He keeled over backwards onto the ground.

What Roz saw in front of her was not pretty. Will was missing a sizeable chunk out of his arm and stomach. He was convulsing slightly on the ground and both of his wounds were pouring blood.

It was completely revolting.

"HELP!" Roz yelled. Sue was the first to get there.

"Oh my god, what the hell happened here?" She said. Each word got louder as she took in what she was seeing. The rest of the group was racing to meet them. "Get the hell back!"

Emma was in tears near the front. "What happened? Is Will ok?" She peeked out from around Sue and saw her fiancée's bloody body on the ground. Her scream was even louder than Will's. She pushed through Sue and went over to him.

The group was about twenty feet away from the car. They all tried to get a peek at what was happening by the car.

"Coach Sylvester…" Sam asked. "What happened to Mr. Schue?"

Roz and Emma were trying to nurse Will, who was in desperate need of immediate care. "Sue, tell a couple of those boys to throw me their shirt!" Roz yelled to the cheerleading coach. She herself took off her tracksuit and wrapped it around the man's midsection. Almost instantly the blue jacket was tinged with red.

"Sam and Puck, throw me your shirts!" Sue yelled. It shocked all of them that she actually called students by their real name.

With no hesitation, Sam and Puck threw their shirts to Sue who gave them to Roz. Roz wrapped them around Will's arm and like her jacket, they became stained with red.

"Coach Sylvester, what happened to Mr. Schue?" A tearful Rachel asked.

"He was bitten!" Roz yelled from the side of the body.

"Bitten by what?" Finn asked, holding Rachel in his arm.

Suddenly it began to rain. The rain washed with it some of Will's blood and the bloody water spread out quickly. The students saw this and they all ran forward.

Roz pointed to the dead man with a pool net stuck in his forehead. "He was bitten… By the walking dead."

**A/N-By popular demand, there you have it. The dead have now begun walking in Lima, Ohio.** **I wrote an extra long chapter just to include them in the last bit (hooray for eight thousand word update)! Now that the ball has begun rolling (or more aptly, the shit has hit the fan), I would really love it and appreciate it if you would Read and Review. It would mean the world to me **** thank you all so much! Please read and review :D**


	5. Aftermath

**A/N-Sorry about the late update everyone! I had written a few pages, but when I woke up, the laptop wasn't charging and I lost the document. So I had to rewrite it and stuff. Anyway, on with the story!**

Emma stood over the hole in the courtyard of West McKinley High School. The courtyard was a neatly trimmed rectangle of grass in between two buildings of the school. Now it had a grave-sized hole marring the otherwise perfect yard. The gardener was going to have a fit if he ever got back. Emma didn't care. Will was going to be buried properly.

He wasn't dead yet, and every other person was in the empty classroom where Will's bloody body lay, trying futilely to save him. Emma knew better than that. Her fiancée was dead, or at least, going to be dead very soon. That's why she had gotten Finn and Puck to dig the grave for her. She hadn't needed to say anything-she had found shovels in the gardener's shed, and had silently held them out to Finn. He had understood.

In her hands were the phone and its charger. They seemed so pointless to be the objects that had ended Will's life. The group had yet to try the phone, however. There was still that glimmer of hope. The phone still wouldn't bring Will back.

Grief finally overtook Emma, and she keeled over, kneeling at the foot of the grave, her face buried in her hands. The phone and charger had fallen in the hole, but it didn't matter to Emma. Let it be buried beneath six feet of dirt, just like Will.

~~~Sue's Office~~~

There was a complete lack of noise in the office. The five adults who were still alive couldn't think of anything to say. Emma's grave had said enough.

Burt broke the silence. "Alright, I can't stand this. Is anyone going to say anything?"

Sue had perched her chin on her clasped hands. "There's nothing to say. Will's gone." She said it with the utmost of sincerity. There was none of her usual sarcasm. She didn't have a smirk on her face. It was a very naked Sue-devoid of all hints of joking, sarcasm, or anger. On only one other occasion had anyone seen her like that, and that was when her own sister had died-and then, she had been overwrought with tears.

"He needs a funeral." Emma said. Carole smiled through tears and rubbed her back.

"He meant everything to those kids." Burt said. "Of course there'll be a memorial, Emma."

"What about the phone?" Roz asked. "Has anyone tried it?"

"No." Emma said. "I had it the whole time. I didn't use it." She put the phone on the table.

Burt sighed and grabbed the phone, dialed 911, and put the phone to his ear.

"Hello, emergency services here. What seems to be the problem?" An exhausted woman said on the other end, knowing full well what the problem was.

"Hi, we'd just like to know if you have any information on the disease." Burt said. "We're at West McKinley High School with a group of kids, and one teacher was just attacked by a man. The man did not have a heartbeat."

"I'm sorry sir, but we know just about as much as you do. Somehow this disease is bringing dead people back to life, just like in the movies. Also, much like their Hollywood counterparts, they can be killed only with a shot to the brain." The woman said. "The government has been working day in and day out to solve this. Right now we're ordering a nationwide quarantine. There will be daily updates at eight o'clock every night on the radio."

Burt closed his eyes in frustration. "Alright, thank you."

"And one more thing, sir." The woman said on the other end.

Burt paused to collect his thoughts before saying. "What is it?"

"The man that was attacked-did you get him through his brain?"

Burt swallowed hard. "I don't think that will be necessary ma'am."

There was a palpable silence before the woman said. "Thank you for calling, sir."

Burt did not reply and clicked the off button.

No one said anything. All five of them were thinking different things, and the silence was so thick they felt that they could touch it. No one could believe that the idea that the dead walked among them could be a real threat. It was an absurd idea. Zombies were only in movies-how had they killed their Glee teacher?

Roz finally broke the silence. "How secure is the school?"

"There's a chain-link fence around the whole school, and there are three entrances." Sue replied curtly, no hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Should we go lock them up, then?" Burt quipped, worried about sending anyone out to shut the fence gates.

"They'll need weapons." Roz said. "My pool net worked well enough, but I was a fourth place loser in javelin throwing in the Olympics. I know as well as I know that Lautner kid is all kinds of fruity that no one could do that around here 'cept me."

"Well, Mohawk and Hudson are the strongest men here." Sue stated while chewing on a pen. "Give them a pair of baseball bats and they'll be good to go."

"No!" Carole shouted, panicked. "That's my son you're talking about. I know you're rather… Radical about how you do things, Sue, but they're just kids."

"No they're not, Carole." Sue replied evenly. "Both are eighteen. They can vote, they can see NC-17 movies, they're allowed to watch other people do the nasty, which Fetus-Face has been doing since he was an actual fetus. They're not little children. And who else would you want to do it? You're a doting housewife who never wears a single sensible thing in your life, Erma throws up when she sees blood, your husband has a heart problem, and frankly, I'm with child." Sue rubbed her belly for added emphasis. "They've been whacking baseballs with those things since diapers, how is a rotted, disgusting zombie head any different?"

"Because what just happened to Will could happen to one of our kids!" Carole yelled. "Look, could Roz at least go with them?"

"Yes ma'am I can," said Roz.

Carole put her head in her hands and sighed. "Alright. Go. There are only three entrances around the school anyway."

Roz pursed her lips and without a word, stalked out of the room.

~~~Choir Room~~~

All of the sixteen of the kids and Dave were sitting in the choir room in the same spots that they used to. It was almost exactly how it used to be, except Will's dead body was on a table in the front of the room with a sheet over him. His hand had fallen out and was dangling off the table, but no one had wanted to move it and touch his cold body.

There had been literally nothing they could do but watch their teacher die. He had been put in a spare classroom where they had all tried giving him medicine in vain. It had been chaos, with tear-stained teenagers and adults buzzing back and forth to their dying teacher's aid.

He had died in thirteen minutes and thirty-seven seconds, according to Kurt's watch.

"You know," Brittany said, breaking the silence and rousing those in attendance out of their stupor "Lord Tubbington said that everything ends up back where it started. Which is weird because right after that I found my pen."

Even Brittany's twisted logic couldn't get them out of their funk. But what she had said rung true among them all. They each thought of their first day in that classroom, and all of the things he had written on that whiteboard.

_Hello_

_Whitney_

_Hair_

_Duet_

Rachel, tears still silently streaming down her face, went up to the board and simply wrote _Good-bye_ on the board, then signed her name as an afterthought. She left without a word.

Not long after that, Finn grunted as he got up and sloppily signed his beneath hers.

Getting the hint, each student signed their name on the board. First Mercedes. Then Tina and Mike. Then Sam. And so on, until the board was crowded with signatures and had one big _Good-bye_ written across the middle.

Emma walked in long after the last kid had made their way out and saw the board. It made her choke with emotion, seeing a word written on his board like he used to do.

And in front of that board was him.

She pulled down the sheet so she could see his head. With the sheet covering his emaciated body, he looked almost normal, like he had just decided to fall asleep. His sweater vest and button-up polo were peeking out from beneath the sheet.

Emma smiled at the peace of it all. The room was absolutely silent, and it was very reminiscent of one of his classes. Except for the fact that there was a dead teacher covered by a sheet in the front of the room that is.

She sighed and pulled out the knife, which was the real reason she had come there. Emma raised the knife in front of her symbolically and slashed her index finger, sucking in air at the sudden pain. It was funny how only days before the sight of blood-and not even her blood-would have made her pass out. Yet here she was, slashing her finger for her dead fiancée. Before it began to heal, Emma pressed her bloody finger on Will's head and as if it was finger paint, Emma smeared the blood in a rough outline of a heart, which she quickly filled in. Opening a band-aid with her teeth (another big no-no in her book), she wrapped her finger.

The heart was slightly lopsided, and on any other normal day, Emma would've spent as much of the day as she could, fussing over the shape, trying to get it just right. Instead, she was oddly satisfied about the uneven heart. It helped her remember that this was the man that pushed her to get fixed of her Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

"I'm so sorry this happened Will." Emma whispered. In the astute silence, it seemed far louder than it actually was. "Everyone misses you. I doubt that comes as a surprise to you though. Those kids loved you. They still do." Emma stopped. "Now I guess I'm just the crazy woman that talks to her dead husband."

Emma swallowed what felt like a ton of bricks and brought out the whole reason she had come there in the first place.

It was the long knife from the kitchen, gleaming with wall of its silent ferocity, Emma's blood still wet on the blade.

"I didn't ever think I'd have to do this Will." She said. "I don't think either of us did." As she said every word, the knife got ever so closer to the man she loved. "But if this is how the world will be, then I'll have to learn how to do these things." The point of the knife now rested on the heart she had just drawn. "You did so much for me. You weren't just a teacher to the kids. You were a teacher to all of us. You taught me how to overcome my fears. You taught me how to be a better person. You were even there for me through every broken heart.

"But you've done all you can, Will." Emma whispered her voice hardly even existential at all. "You've taught everything you need to. And it's time for you to rest. No disease can take that away from you because I'll always love you."

It surprised Emma how easily the knife slid into his forehead. She pushed with all she could as the knife dug its way through her heart and into his brain. He didn't bleed much, which relieved Emma because she didn't want to remember him with blood all over his face. What unnerved her was the sound. It sounded like a hand reaching into a pool of Jell-O. She stopped when the handle reached his forehead. Yes. That should be enough.

"Good-bye Will." Emma said taking the marker and writing her own name right beneath the word good-bye. She didn't make a sound as she slipped out of the room.

~~~Parking Lot~~~

"Y'all two meatheads ready?" Roz called across the lot.

Puck and Finn glanced at each other with a look of uncertainty. "Yeah, Coach." Puck called. "We're ready."

"Good." Roz said, and the three went off across the parking lot towards the main entrance.

The school was silent. The only sounds came from the syncopated steps of three pairs of shoes. It was the most unnerving thing imaginable. Before long, Finn broke the silence. "So, umm… Coach Roz, you didn't seem too fazed by all that zombie stuff."

Roz bit her tongue to keep from talking. _Don't say anything and everything will be OK. _"I did what was damn necessary in the situation. Nothin' more than that."

Puck cleared his throat before saying "Yeah, but it didn't look like it affected you at all. I'm the biggest badass here and I couldn't do anything."

Roz stopped walking before saying "You know what, boys, I won a Bronze damn Olympic Medal in '08 and I've seen more things than you ever will. I've seen Michael Phelps' unsurprisingly small glory hole, I've seen the dark side a Regis Philbin's moon-and it ain't pretty. So you can shut your damn bat caves for two seconds while we try to lock this place up."

Unabashed the two boys did keep quiet. They reached the main gate right after.

"Well, let's get this place locked up." Puck said, putting his bat down and reaching for the gate. With a loud creak, he began pulling the gate closed. About halfway shut, he heard a noise and stopped. "What the hell is that?" he said.

The answer came in the form of a slowly lumbering form walking up the road. He was breathing through his slightly ajar mouth. It was wet, wheezy sound. The dress shoes he wore were shuffling across the asphalt.

"Christ." Finn whispered.

Puck scowled and yelled. "This ends now!" He walked past the fence and stopped ten feet in front of the monster.

"Puck, what the hell are you doing?" Finn yelled and walked past the fence as well.

The zombie had picked up the pace seeing Puck. When he got close, Puck swung his bat, the zombie's head jerking left with the force of the hit. He let loose a choking sound as he crumpled to the ground. Puck bashed his skull again and a crack appeared in the man's head. With one final swing, Puck burst his head open with the force of a thousand bricks. Brains and blood flew everywhere as the undead man stopped moving. Puck spit on the man. "That's for taking our teacher."

Finn stopped dead in his tracks. "Puck…"

"What?" Puck grunted, his eyes never drifting from the corpse.

"You killed that man…" Finn whispered, his shoulders hunched.

"He was already dead Finn." Puck finally turned around. "Look, I have no idea if this will be a permanent thing, but if it is, you have to learn how to do this. What if it was Rachel they were attacking? They've already shown they don't care who they eat. They ate Mr. Schue, Finn. He's gone! And there's-"

"PUCK!" Finn yelled, pushing his friend out of the way and swinging towards a girl in a sundress who had just walked out of the trees. He had closed his eyes in fear and missed horribly, only hitting the girl in the stomach. Still, with the normal gurgling sound, the zombie went down. Finn opened his eyes and stared down at the girl who was lying on the ground in front of her. Already she was crawling towards Finn again. Finn was hunched over, stunned by what he had done. The girl grabbed on to his ankle and Finn yelled out in fear. Roz darted from the fence, but it was Puck who acted first and grabbed his bat from the ground and hit the zombie's head. He hit it again and the girl was still.

Both of the boys were catching their breaths when Roz reached them. "What the hell, Coach?" Finn yelled. "Why didn't you try to help us?"

Roz crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. "Look at those dead zombies on the ground. _You _two did that. Why are you trying to ask me for help when you don't need it?"

Finn stood up and stared straight at the woman. "I don't trust you."

She laughed derisively. "That makes one of us. You think it makes a damn difference to me?"

"Stop it Finn." Puck said. "We don't need this."

Just then they heard more moaning and coming up from the road were three suit-clad men were walking towards them.

Roz swore under her breath. "Get behind the fence. Now!"

The three ran quickly to behind the fence and they locked the now-closed gate. "We need a car." Puck said. "Let's go get my truck and we can block off the fence."

"Alright." Finn said. The three of them got Puck's truck and by the time they had driven it back in front of the fence, the three zombies were banging away at the fence. They got out and walked away after bashing each of the zombies' heads in.

"Rachel will never hear about this, OK?" Finn said to Puck.

"Dude." Puck said. "No sweat."

Finn looked to Roz. "Don't look at me. I'm not getting involved in your twisted high-school drama."

They blocked off the other two gates the same way with other cars and without a word the three made it back to the cafeteria.

~~~Cafeteria~~~

"And that about sums up everything we saw." Finn said the rest of the group.

No one said anything. Then Puck spoke up. "But obviously the disease is getting worse. We need weapons and a set of rusty-ass baseball bats isn't going to cut it."

"We need guns." Roz said loudly.

This brought forth a maelstrom of conversation that was settled down by Sue. "Shut up everyone!" She yelled.

"How are we possibly going to get guns?" Rachel piped up from the front.

"There's a gun store a couple miles down the road. We could go there with a group of people." Puck said.

"We don't need to go straight to guns." Mercedes said. "We can think of something else."

"Mercedes," Sam said next to her. "Don't think about it like we're going to kill people. We're just going to kill inhuman things that shouldn't be alive, and a gun is the safe way to do it."

Mercedes bit her lip and didn't say anything and instead snuggled closer to her new boyfriend.

"We'll need money if we're gonna do that." Artie said. "That's if the owners are still alive."

"Everyone, pool your money in this front table." Sue ordered, tapping a round table near the lunch line. Every person put a little bit in and in the end the total came to four-hundred and twenty-three dollars and seventy-nine cents.

"This would only feed three children in Africa." Sue muttered. "But it'll have to do." She said, pocketing the money.

"Now, as many of you know, Sponge-hair Square-chin is in need of a funeral." Sue said. "Emma is already out there and before any of us are going to get heavy artillery, we have to go pay our respects.

Without a word, everyone followed.

~~~Funeral~~~

All of them except Joe, whose condition was worsening, walked outside. It was getting towards late evening and the sky was getting dark. A Will-sized bundle was already at the bottom of the hole. The kids had inadvertently gotten in order of when they joined. Rachel went first, and dropped a thin gold chain from around her wrist into the grave. "Good-bye, Mr. Schue." She said.

It went like that through each of the kids. After Rachel was Tina, then Artie, then Kurt, and so on. Each person left something for the teacher that had meant everything to them.

When it was over, Emma spoke. "I'm sorry to bring you out here. I just wanted a service for him." Tears were welling up in her eyes. "He was great man. I know how much he meant to you, and I'm sorry this happened to him. That's all we can say, I guess."

Together, all of them helped to cover Will's grave, and as soon as the last shovelful was put in, there was a sense of closure. Mr. Schuester's scar would always be there, but there was nothing they could do. All of them walked back inside soon after.

~~~Cafeteria~~~

There was a general murmur about who would go. They didn't want a large group to go, so they settled on five-enough for one car.

"Well, obviously Roz will go since she did so well with the fences." Burt said. Roz nodded in agreement.

"Puck and I'll go." Finn said. Rachel squezzed his arm in encouragement.

"I think I should go." Blaine said. "Kurt and I talked about it, and we agreed." The latter had his face in his hands.

"And I'll go too." Dave said next to him. "I know most of you still don't like me, but I need to pull my weight around here, and this'll be a good way to do it."

"Alright, is everyone in agreement?" Sue asked. There was still general dissention because no one wanted anyone to leave, but in the end it was decided. Roz, Finn, Puck, Blaine, and David were to leave, with a walkie talkie from a school closet to call in case anything went wrong. The group walked out to the lot with them, and together the five in question got in Burt's car, and after a gentle good-bye, the five of them drove off.

**A/N-Sorry about the late update everyone, I've just been so busy lately. Thanks for all the reviews and favorites, they mean so much to me :) I want to try to get a regular update day going, so I think maybe every other Sunday would work. Anyways, I'm very excited about this story as the plot's beginning to thicken and we get deeper and deeper into the plot. Thanks for reading and as always, a review would always be greatly appreciated. :) **


	6. An Ember Can Start an Inferno Part 1

**CHAPTER SIX: AN EMBER CAN START AN INFERNO: Part 1**

The car, much like humans nowadays, came to life as Roz inserted the key into the ignition. Finn took the front seat and Dave, Blaine, and Puck grabbed the back seats.

The former swim coach pulled reached one of the gates, to which there was Puck's truck still in the way. He got out and promptly moved it and unlocked the gate then got back in the car.

"It was a good idea to block the gates with those cars." Blaine noted from the middle.

Grunting as he pulled his seatbelt into place, Puck said "Yeah, we ran into a bit of… Trouble while closing the gate." Finn shifted nervously in the front seat. "It doesn't matter though. Obviously Puckzilla saved the day." From behind the wheel, Roz scoffed and stared straight ahead. Blaine wasn't sure if she was scoffing at Puck's hesitation or his ridiculous nickname.

The group passed the corpse of the dead woman with her head caved in. Blaine breathed in sharply in horror. "Holy hell. It seems a lot more than just a little."

Finn closed his eyes, fiddling with a loose thread on his shirt. "They're people, Blaine. I just… I couldn't." He whispered.

"What if it was Rachel standing next to you? What then?" Blaine shot back.

"I don't know!" Finn growled through gritted teeth. "I don't really want to think about it either. I'm only eighteen, dude."

"Why not? Look, maybe this will all blow over, maybe it won't. But we need to prepare ourselves for if this goes long-term. And not killing those things _won't _help anything." Blaine countered. "I'm only seventeen, and I don't want to think about all this anymore than you do."

"Hey!" Roz yelled from the front. "Maybe all that gel crap you put in that rat's nest messed up yo' mind, but you need to turn the Chris Crocker-meter down a few notches. The last thing we need is more tears in this group." She glared straight ahead, and all four noticed that the car sped up ten miles an hour.

There was silence in the car until Blaine said "I'm sorry. This whole thing has gotten to my head is all."

Roz eyed the former Warbler in the rearview mirror. "Hmph. Well, we've got trouble up ahead anyways."

A few hundred yards ahead, where the train tracks marked the edge of central Lima, was a train. Nothing looked wrong with it except for the fact that it was stopped on the tracks, directly in the way of the road that would get them to the town. Roz stopped the car and got out. The beginning and end of the car was out of sight.

Puck got out after her. "What now coach?" He asked, resting one arm on the roof of the car.

Roz didn't answer for a second. She turned a full circle, quickly surveying the wooded area. "There are three other roads that go over the tracks. One of them has to be open."

Finn got out as well. "Damn it." He muttered, slamming the end of his bat in the ground. Why does everything have to be so difficult?"

"My thoughts exactly, Butthead." Roz muttered.

"Butthead?" Finn asked, puzzled.

Roz turned around, her mouth slightly agape. "_Beavis _and Butthead?" When Finn showed no signs of recognition, she said, "I swear, what do you kids read today?"

"The label on the condom box is pretty useful." Puck said. "Except for one time, but that was just 'cause I didn't read the other label that said 'Keep one with you at all times.'"

Roz snorted. Just then, the cracking of a branches and the rustle of a bush were heard. The trio turned and a zombie was ambling its way towards them. Without so much as a second thought, Roz strode over to it and swung her bat, effectively cleaving off the head. A few more were picking up the pace towards them.

"Get in the car." Roz breathed and the three darted back to the car. The zombies were upon them by the Roz started the car. The car jerked forward as it blew over one of them. The noise it made as the car ran over it made Finn wince. Blaine gave him a faint simle and patted his shoulder, as if to say that everything was ok.

The front of the train ended right at the next road. The five breathed a sigh of relief. It was just enough of the road for the car to pass over. And as Dave pointed out, it was closer to the gun store anyway.

"How did you know?" Finn quipped.

"My dad was a hunter and I'm not proud to say I've killed a few animals." Dave replied.

Roz heard this and asked "So you're a good shot then?"

Dave frowned before replying with "Fairly decent, I guess."

"Good enough." Roz said. At any rate, she looked pleased. "At least you've handled a gun. Man-baby over here will probably take The Civil Rights Movement to learn how to shoot." Finn gritted his teeth but said nothing.

The car went over the bump and drove down the street. A few zombies were lurking around, but it was diminutive enough to not worry about.

"How do you think it all started?" Finn asked no one in particular. He had his head resting on his hand and was watching the buildings pass by.

Noticed only by Finn, Roz set her jaw and gripped the wheel tighter. " Maybe some kind of disease or something." She grunted. Clearly wanting to change subjects, she asked Dave which street it was on.

"A few blocks ahead, then a left I think." He answered, glancing out the window. "It's so different without people everywhere."

"Well they are, just not in the same way." Blaine said bitterly.

The group passed stores and a few houses when a scream was heard. Up ahead a woman burst out of a house screaming while a man and a kid chased after her. "Oh my god." Finn whispered. "We have to save her."

"Say what?" Roz asked. "With all that noise she's making, they'll be here in no time."

With admirable gusto, Finn opened the door while the car was still doing thirty-five. "Stop the car." He growled.

"What in the hell?" Roz yelled, slamming on the brakes. Before the car even stopped, Finn leaped out with his bat in hand. "Finn, sit yo' ass back down!" the swim coach yelled.

He ran to the sidewalk while his friends got out to get him back. Finn trudged forward and met the woman. "Get back!" He yelled. She rand and his behind her savior. Fin braced himself while the undead duo ran straight towards him with weird, strangled sounds. With a guttural roar, the football player bashed the man's skull in with a direct swing downwards. He dropped with a thud on top of the zombified kid, who Finn offed in a similar fashion.

Then there was silence.

Finn breathed heavily while he stared at the growing pools of blood on the concrete. Behind him, the woman asked timidly, "Are they dead?"

"Yeah. They're dead for real this time." He said. Then he promptly threw up on the corpses.

"That was the biggest-assed adrenaline rush I've ever seen." Roz said from the car. "Now get in."

"Please!" The woman begged. "My friend Wendye is in there asleep. We have to get her."

"Excuse me, lady, but this car is only big enough for five. You're lucky we're taking you." Roz barked.

"The name is Mindy by the way." The woman shot back sourly. "And I am going back to get her."

"You just ran out of a house screaming bloody murder and you think it's safe to stay here? They'll be here faster than you can say lunchmeat." Roz said.

Just then, a lock was heard being undone and a woman with long black hair stuck her head out a window. "Mindy, was that you screaming?" She sounded groggy as if she had just woken up.

"Wendye!" Mindy yelled with a smile. "Come on down! These people are going to take us!"

"Excuse me?" Roz exclaimed with a huff. "This Prius is the size of a lunchbox. We ain't no tour bus."

All the same, Wendye emerged from the front door. She was in a set of pajamas, not in the least ready to run away. When she saw the corpses of the man and the woman she exhaled as if an anvil had just been thrown into her chest. "Randy and Danny! Mindy, are you-"

Mindy cut her short with tears in her eyes yet still maintaining a steely disposure. "They're gone, Wen. Let's just go."

Finn smiled and escorted them to the tiny car. "Right this way madams." He said with a toothy grin, opening the door. Mindy crawled in and straddled the center console while Wendye sat in the floorboards of the back.

"I swear, what the hell did I say about not having space?" Roz grumbled. Nonetheless, she started the car.

They drove in silence until Blaine remarked "You know, it's weird how there haven't been that many of them around here."

Dave swallowed hard. "Maybe it wasn't bad here." He said.

"Please honey." Roz scoffed. "You sound about as confident as Clay Aiken on American Idol results night. They're all probably off at The Scream's house back there."

Mindy laughed as she swayed on her precarious perch. "Sorry about that. Seeing your husband and son wake up after being sick gets to you."

The car swerved then straightened itself quickly. "How sick were they?" Roz asked ferociously.

"They had a horrible fever. It didn't last long though, but it made them really skinny."

A gleam of sweat appeared on the swim coach's brow. "Jesus Christ…" she whispered.

Puck's eyes narrowed at the woman's obvious nervousness. "What's on your mind, coach?"

"We're at the store." Roz grunted, ignoring the question. In a swift, fluid spin of the steering wheel, Roz parallel parked and got out. There still were no stragglers on the street, but her posture remained tight and attentive.

Finn groaned as he got out of the car and stretched his sore muscles. "God we need to get a new car." He grunted.

"I would've gotten the Super 8 motel if I had known we were going to pick up half of Lima." Roz muttered back.

"Dude, it was just two people." Finn shot back.

Roz turned and narrowed her eyes at Finn. "That's two more mouths to feed and two more asses we have to carry around." She walked over to the Prius and pulled out three athletic bags she had grabbed at the school.

"Guys, did you see the store?" Blaine asked with a furrowed brow.

The store looked completely ransacked. Its two glass windows had been completely shattered and the door situated in between the two hung only on its top hinge. Inside was completely dark.

"Crap." Puck said. "Someone was here first.

"Get in." Roz ordered tersely. "Look at every inch of that place. And don't miss a single one."

The group moved in, and those that had bats held them at the ready. Roz swung the door in and noticed that the bell didn't ring because it had been ripped down and was now on the floor. Inside the store wasn't much better. The narrow space had items littered all over the dirty floor from bullet casings to long rifles. Roz stopped and gave out the bags she had in her hand. "I want each one of these full before we leave." She said simply.

The group fanned out down the aisles they could walk down. One of the shelves had been knocked over, its contents spilled out on the floor. Blaine and Puck walked over and pulled it up, grunting with the effort. Underneath were around two dozen guns in assorted sizes. Puck smiled, a manic glint in his eye. "Jackpot baby."

Blaine chuckled. "I guess this would be the first time you'd get to use one legally."

"Hey, that was one time, bro." Puck grinned. "Let's pack these bad boys up."

Blaine hesitated. "Do you think this counts as stealing?"

Puck rolled his eyes and did not even hesitate piling the weapons in the bag. "Really dude? That's the first thing you think about? The racks are completely empty two rows down. We wouldn't be the first."

Blaine chewed at his lower lip but bent down and complied.

The store was shaped in an L, with the short end around a corner at the back of the store. Roz walked down the aisles, where gun accessories were laid out. The first thing she reached for were the silencers, which were few and far between. In total she found seven, two of which were broken. She swore silently but stowed the other five in her bag. Next she found the bullets which were almost completely gone. What was left was mostly scattered around on the ground.

She was going to reach down and collect them when a hand reached from across the shelves and grabbed her neck.

Finn had left his clothes crumpled in the classroom. Rachel sighed. It was so typical of him. _By the summer, _she thought,_ I'll be living with that._ Then Rachel remembered with a start that she wouldn't. Her regularly bubbly self would've denied it, but these were extenuating circumstances and she knew in her heart of hearts that things could only get worse.

On her way back to the room, she walked by Sue's office, where the adults were huddling around a radio, gleaning any sort of information that they could. The door was shut tight but when she put her ear to the crack between the door and the doorframe, the things she heard didn't reassure her in anyway. She heard things like "mass chaos," "global crisis," and "last resort" being thrown around. Rachel knew from seventeen movies and three plays that words like those couldn't mean good things.

She grabbed the crumpled-up clothes and went to the bathroom in an attempt to wash them. As she was going through the clothes, she realized the shirt was gone. _I must have dropped it somewhere_ Rachel thought. Retracing her steps, she walked back the way she came. His shirt was found crumpled on the ground.

Directly in front of Sue's office. And the room seemed, due to the lack of sounds coming from the room, vacant. When she walked up to Sue's office door, she saw that the adults had indeed left and the radio was sitting idly on the desk.

Rachel stopped dead in her tracks. The adults clearly didn't want any of the kids to hear the radio, but it couldn't be that bad. After all, if it was that bad, then whatever was going on would turn long-term and they'd all have to live with it. And the youngest of any of them was a junior. They deserved to hear.

Giving into her temptation, Rachel quietly crept into the office. The radio suddenly seemed to become the only thing in the room, and she swallowed hard as she sat down in one of the metal chairs, reaching to the electronic box and switching it on. All that came out was static, and it took some random turning of the dials for anything to come on.

"-zombie count is now surpassing thirty million. Your own army is fighting against this immense threat and is doing all they can. We can only stress the importance of staying indoors so not to spread the disease that started it all. On that topic, the virus has been traced back to chicken products produced by Tyson Industries. It is imperative that no one consumes its meat in order to prevent the virus from mutating even farther-"

The old radio burst into static. Rachel yelped and turned the volume down. "Getting bad out there, isn't it, Barbara?"

Rachel jumped and turned around to the door, where Sue Sylvester was leaning against the doorframe. "How'd you-"

"Get here? Well, Berry, getting thrown to the wolves in the mountains at the tender age of three can help you learn a thing or two, like the clever art of the hunt which entails silently stalking prey for their lupine young, and in this case, you're the lowly deer." Sue stalked over to her chair and sat down. Rachel just stared, gaping openmouthed at Sue.

She snapped back into reality. "I'm sorry Coach Sylvester. I'll umm, I'll just leave." Rachel said, getting up hurriedly from her chair.

"Sit down, Troll." Sue ordered. Rachel did as she was told. "What did you just listen to?"

Rachel scrunched her brow in confusion. "Ummm, the radio… But what-"

"Not the device. What he was saying." Sue clarified, crossing her hands over her supposedly burgeoning belly.

"The whole…. Zombie thing I guess. Nothing we didn't already know." Rachel said. "And the chicken thing…"

"Something your little Jesus friend has had lately, hasn't he?" Sue quipped.

"No… Not Joe… He hasn't done anything." Realization creeped over Rachel's face when it became apparent to her what the cheerleading coach was implying.

"That's exactly the point. This disease that's going around-it takes no prisoners." Sue growled, emphasizing the last part as she stared out the window to the empty parking lot. "You may hear otherwise, but no one here actually thinks that this will all blow over. You can see it in their eyes-it's like a bunch of sad and depressed puppies that got their lasagna taken away from a morbidly obese tabby cat."

"But Coach Sylvester," Rachel said confusedly. "What does that have to do with this?"

Sue gritted her teeth and turned her chair to face the unfortunately-dressed teenager. The light of the desk lamp accentuated her stern facial features, casting bizarre shadows of her eyes on defined cheekbones and illuminating her regularly pallid skin tone. "The point? How many of those things did the announcer report? Or were you too daft to listen to that too?"

Rachel stuck her jaw out in a small display of impudence. "It was thirty million, coach." She replied tersely, rising slowly from her chair. "And don't you dare speak to me that again."

A half-grin formed on the woman's face and she rose to face the teen. "Yesterday the number accounted for was ten million." Sue whispered a sound Rachel herself could hardly hear. "You should keep that fiery chutzpa, Berry. It suits you well and it'll get you far in this world. Be sure to tell that to Pillsbury Doughboy next time you two perform whatever craven mating rituals you must do during coitus. He's got a one way ticket to becoming mottled in bite marks if he doesn't grow a pair and start killing those things. Mind giving him one of yours?" Sue quipped. When Rachel didn't reply, Sue said "Now get the hell out of my office. I only have enough narwhal blubber for one smoothie and I don't want your deceased grandmother's turtleneck sweater to ruin it. I mean for the love of god have you seen the inside of a shopping mall in your lifetime?" With that, Sue sat down in her chair and did not look up.

For a second, Rachel did not move. She just stared at the trophy case behind the desk. Once she came to her senses, she, much like the wolves in the mountains, stalked away silently. Unbeknownst to the teen, Sue noticed this and chuckled as she pulled out her journal and began writing in it.

It astounded Rachel how little Sue's derogatory jibes seemed to faze her anymore. And now she was standing up to them and that the teacher was congratulating her for it? It was completely surreal.

She walked into the girls' bathroom, where Quinn had a handbag of various types of make up open at one sink. The long window near the ceiling was propped open and the misplaced sound of a bird chirping was heard. A single duffle bag sat next to the sink as well.

Rachel walked over to the adjacent sink. "Even in the apocalypse you have to be beautiful, don't you Quinn?" She asked, unconsciously fixing her hair.

Quinn, who was presently applying lip gloss, stopped and smiled. "Those monsters are going to be completely disarmed by my striking good looks and won't attack me." She joked.

"I doubt that'll happen." Rachel said with a laugh. She turned on the hot water and draped her boyfriend's clothes over the edge of the sink.

Quinn resumed her makeup applying. "To be truthful, it's just habit. After the… Lucy Caboosey incident…" Quinn said with a hard swallow. "I vowed to never go a day without makeup. And as far as I can tell, the world's ended but the days haven't stopped.

Rachel stopped testing the water for a satisfying temperature and glanced in the mirror. She walked over to Quinn's sink and stared from behind the blonde's shoulder. In the fluorescent light above the mirror, Quinn glowed while Rachel was swallowed in darkness behind her. "You're beautiful already Quinn. Some goop on your face and lips won't change that. I spend nearly an hour a day working on my skin and face."

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Please we do _not _need this talk. We already sang Born This Way with all of our insecurities on t-shirts. I think we're well past talking about looks."

Rachel tittered uncomfortably from behind her. "Yeah that's true… It's so weird to think little things like that were what we worried about."

"Berry, calm your tits. We've been here for like a day. It hasn't been five years of hard living." Quinn said, capping the gloss and shoving it rather forcefully in the makeup clutch. She looked up and met Rachel's gaze. "That being said… It's sad to think of all of the memories we all made that led up to now. I'll miss them."

"Yeah…" Rachel muttered. "We'll make more; just not as happy ones I guess. Hey, Quinn? Do you have any soap in that bag?"

"Hmm?" Quinn asked, now doing her eyelashes. "Oh, soap. Yeah, I've got one in that bag there." She replied distractedly, gesturing indistinctly towards her duffle.

Rachel reached down towards it, beginning to unzip the main compartment. Quinn glanced down, and dropped her mascara. "No! Not that one!"

Rachel stopped, seeing the bag's contents. Two sets of gym clothes, a pack of aspirin and some food lay cluttered in the bag. "Quinn…. What's all this for?"

"Not the main compartment you idiot" Quinn screeched, scrambling to zip up the bag.

But the damage had already been done. Rachel rose quizzically, staring at Quinn. "Why do you have bags packed, Quinn?"

Unconvincingly, Quinn replied. "In case we get over run or something. It's good to have a bag to grab."

"Quinn." Rachel said forcefully. "What's the real reason?"

Quinn sighed in response. "I'm leaving this place, Rachel. Too many memories, too much history, too much pain. I didn't want anyone to see, but I guess I'll have to. Tell Brit and Santana I said bye." In a moment, Quinn had climbed atop the sink with the bags in tow and reached up and climbed onto the small window ledge, making even that look graceful.

"What? Quinn!" Rachel yelled, pounding her fists against the wall in protest, unable to reach the other girl. "You're not even armed!"

"Really Rachel, you think I'm that stupid?" Quinn scolded, dangling from the outside so that only her head was visible. "You should've looked in the jean jacket, then." She chided. Her head disappeared, and with that, Quinn was gone.

"Quinn! Come back!" Rachel yelled her fists scratched and red. Panting in exhaustion, she dashed from the bathroom and ran down the halls, screaming "Quinn is gone! Quinn is gone!"

The first person's attention she got was Burt's who poked his head out from an office. "Rachel, what are you-"

"It's Quinn! She was in the bathroom and then jumped out the window! She left!" Rachel exclaimed with fervor.

Burt wasn't buying it. "Rachel, are you sure this happened?"

"Yes!" She protested. "Please, come help me get her!" She tugged at the mechanic's hand, pulling him unwillingly toward the doors. The two burst from them and in a dash of white and blue, they saw Quinn run towards the far fence.

"Oh my god, how can that girl be so stupid!" Burt growled. "We have to get a car!"

The duo ran across the lot as fast as possible. In the middle of the parking lot, the car was halfway to the gate which Quinn was having difficulties of clearing. Her dress was constantly snagging on the gate as she climbed.

Burt jumped in the driver's seat and Rachel had hardly shut her door when he slammed on the accelerator. They reached the gate in no time, but it was too late. Quinn was gone. In her place, a small piece of fabric was stuck on the top of the gate.

Burt didn't even bother turning off the car and got out. Rachel followed, and the two simply stared at the piece of white fabric, shifting slightly in the breeze as if it was taunting the two of the now-lost teenager. Burt grimaced and reached up to pick the fabric off, but just as he did, it broke free of its restraint and floated away.

"We have to go looking for her, Mr. Hummel." Rachel pleaded. "We can't just leave her out there. Here, let's go move the car in front of this gate." She said, walking to the aforementioned opening.

The father just grabbed the collar of her sweater. "We can't Rachel. She's made her decision. Who are we to change that?" She opened her mouth to protest, but didn't say anything. Instead, Rachel kicked the fence uselessly, the links clanking loudly. "But why would she do this to herself… To _us?_"

Burt stared into the forest as if it would bring the blonde back. "That girl's always been a mystery to me. Even when she was dating Finn. She always had her own private agenda. If she wanted to be on her own…" The man trailed off, not wanting to say what came next. He bit his lip. "She's strong, Rachel," Burt finished, clearing his throat and getting in the car.

Rachel's fists clenched, but said nothing as she got back in the car also. It seemed beyond unfair to leave Quinn out by herself in… Well, whatever this was. She told herself it would get better soon. The government would have it all figure dout and in a week school would start back and America could start over. Her dads taught her to "find a light in a dark room" as they put it; Rachel figured that the only thing worse than this was Russell Crowe playing Javert in _Les Miserables. _Just as she was thinking all of this, the _whirr_ of a helicopter came into existence. Faint at first, it quickly became louder until it came into view.

The exterior of the craft was painted exactly like war helicopters were in movies and the blades were fairly larger than usual. What became instantly frightening about it was how low it was flying-the skids were hardly thirty feet above the top of the school. Equally worrying was the speed with which it was flying. Two more crested the hill from which the primary helicopter came from, just as fast and as low as the first.

"What the hell?" Burt growled, slamming on the brakes. The two again emerged from the vehicle. Already, a group of five had gathered in the lot, including Sam, Sue, Mike, Tina, and Carole. Brittany and Santana soon came as well.

The first beastly machine shot over the lot, at breakneck speed rivaled only by a soccer mom getting her kid to practice on time. It seemed to not recognize the small group of people standing in the open, or to even acknowledge their existence at all.

"Hey!" Rachel screamed, futilely attempting to attract some attention. "Down here!"

The second machine flew past with as little disregard towards the people below as the first. It wasn't until the third helicopter that the slightest sign of recognition was shown. As it passed over the group, now including most everyone in the building, it slowed just slightly, only enough for everyone to realize that it's speed had slowed at all. As quickly as it had slowed, it sped up again and shot off, despite the force with which everyone was shouting.

Planes shot by next as the volume level rose louder still. They were the military fighter type with room for one passenger and there were five in a perfect V formation. The last plane on the left stopped, breaking formation and hovering above the crowd, barely heard above the din. The four abandoned planes circled, but they were not as quick as the fifth, which swiftly turned back the way it came, then turned back, facing the oncoming four. It put on full throttle and blasted forward. Just as it once again reached the parking lot, a small black speck shot out of the plane, which promptly nosedived and exploded in a plume of fire and smoke in the forest. The planes were obviously angry, but without a second thought, flew off with the helicopters towards their previous destination.

The sounds of machinery faded away and the speck above suddenly expanded as the parachute opened and the parachutist floated towards the ground below.

"Rogers, we've got twenty miles left till Cleveland. Over." The radio of the first helicopter crackled.

The third, with the aforementioned Rogers as pilot, smiled. "Just a little bit more, Martindale." Rogers responded, not bothering to use the ubiquitous "over."

Martindale flew over a hill, and in front of him lay a high school. "Look at this, boys. We've got us a school. Look at all those fences." Martindale marveled. As he got closer, he saw the group of people and the stopping car. "Lucky bastards. Got the whole place to themselves."

"There's people there?" another voice asked over the system. It was McCready, pilot of the last plane in his formation. His question was full of static.

"Yeah, dumb ass." Rogers chuckled. "Gonna be in for a hell of a surprise for what's coming."

"We can't kill them!" McCready yelled. "It's a bunch of kids! I went to that school."

Rogers slowed above the crowd, looking at the name of the school. "McKinley High, huh? Sounds like a pansy-ass school to me. Listen, McCready. Our orders were to napalm the city and go. You're a military-man. You've got the seat of honor in the apocalypse."

"It's not right! We can't do this!" McCready screamed. "They're people, surviving on their own. Whatever happened to 'by the people, for the people?'"

"We're being for the people by putting them out of their misery. All that's coming is hardship and struggle for them. It's a public service." Martindale growled.

"I'm not going to do this. The government's not going to rest on their laurels while we kill everyone. That's anarchy!" McCready's voice was now deafeningly loud.

"That sure as hell is what we're doing." Martindale's gravelly voice responded.

"I'm stopping." McCready said simply.

"MCCREADY! DON'T YOU DARE!" Martindale yelled. "Jones, Berring, Tarvis, Costa-TURN AROUND!" He ordered the four other planes, who easily complied.

The helicopters did a one-eighty where they could see McCready stopped above the parking lot. The planes were hot on his trail, but McCready was faster. While the pilots were yelling various obscenities, the plane pushed forward…

"McCready!" Rogers and Martindale yelled.

It all happened so fast. McCready ejected and the now-vacant plane was headed towards the jets and helicopters. Below, the plane crashed and exploded, catching Rogers' and Martindale's skids on fire.

"Aaaagh!" The pilots yelled, quickly flying away towards an even more perilous future.

Put simply, the crowd in the McKinley parking lot was chaos.

"What are we doing about Bomber Joe up there?" Santana yelled. "It's getting dark and now we've got a kamikaze pilot trying to land on our parking lot!"

"What about Roz's group?" Carole shot back worriedly. "They still haven't come back.

"And Quinn?" Rachel chimed in. "There's now a mushroom cloud in the middle of the forest she just ran into!"

"Everyone!" Sue roared, instantly quieting all extraneous discussion. "I swear, you're all louder than an '86 Madonna concert. In the cafeteria. Now. Adults, stay out here." Sue ordered and despite a vociferous rebuttal from the kids, they took one look at Sue's glare and stalked inside.

The parachutist was drifting ever closer towards the group. In little time at all, he easily landed a hundred or so feet away from the group of four. Sue bounded over to the man.

"What in the name of Olivia Newton John's handbag are you doing here?" Sue yelled. The man seemed to take little notice as he pulled his helmet off.

"What was that?" The man asked, shaking his sandy-colored hair out, throwing his helmet to the ground.

"Just that you are landing on our parking lot without so much as an invitation. As a matter of fact-"

"I'm sorry about her." Emma said evenly, interrupting the cheer coach. She's a little hot-headed. I'm Emma Pillsbury. I am-umm, was- the guidance counselor here." She said, extending her hand out to the military-man.

He smiled. "Jared McCready. I was a jet pilot for the military. And you saw how well that worked out."

Sue stopped blithering and narrowed her eyes at the man. "What makes you think you have any semblance of permission to land on this school's property?" she asked, spittle flying from her lip.

"Well, ma'am, as far as I can tell, this school is public property. So I have every right to be here." The man replied, with a slight half-smile playing upon his lips. There was a faint southern lilt to his tone with a southern tan to match. "I mean you no harm. I saw on my way down that you had a bunch of kids?"

"Sixteen of them, as a matter of fact, but you'd be quicker to see my backside than a single one of them." Sue shot back, all malice quite evident in her voice.

"What she means," Emma interpreted for the angry woman. "Is that we do have a large group of teenagers here-the apocalypse _did _happen during school. And we'd just like to know why you ejected out of that plane to get here."

"Ah." McCready replied. "That was a hasty decision on my part, but it's not one I regret. Those men you saw in those jets and helicopters were flying towards the city with large amounts of napalm so they could… Eradicate most of the human population.

Carole gasped and clutched her heart. "Why were they doing that?"

The pilot sighed. "To be honest with you, I know _why,_ but it still doesn't make sense after seeing all of you here. The government called a red alert, and then eventually ordered any important government figures and some of the military to DC to hide in their top-secret bunker. We were going to napalm any large cities to stop the disease from spreading, you see. I'm ashamed to say I was briefly a part of that."

"The government was going to turn on us that quickly?" Burt asked. "That's crazy."

"It's the truth. And as we flew over your school, and I saw you're large group managing to survive… It gave me hope. So I cut myself away from them and came here." McCready said.

"And we're supposed to welcome you with open arms?" Sue asked menacingly.

"I was hoping so. And if you're one of the hostile groups, I am more than willing to leave." McCready reasoned.

"Sue." Emma said firmly. "I'm sorry for her. Of course you can stay. We have more than enough food and room for you. Sheets are the one thing we don't have though."

He smiled to her. "Thank you, ma'am. Now, out of curiosity… Have you had any deaths here?"

Emma swallowed hard, and clutched the brooch on her sweater. "One. He was my fiancée, and…." She stopped, feeling the warmth and blurriness around her eyes from the all-too-familiar tears.

"My apologies. You seemed to have secured premises and I was only wondering." McCready responded, his voice full of genuine concern.

"Can we get you something to eat?" Carole asked with a smile.

"That would be wonderful…" He drifted off, not knowing Carole's name.

"Carole." She said. "Now, let's…" She stopped, hearing a noise at the gates.

At the main entrance to the school, Puck was hastily shoving it open. Roz climbed over the cars in the way and ran at full force towards the group.

She was clearly winded by the running and stopped at the group of adults, stooping with her hands on her knees.

"Roz!" Emma gasped. "What happened? Where are the kids? Where's the car?"

The swim coach held up her hand, asking for a moment. When she finally caught her breath, she stood up straight. "It's the group. We've lost one."

**A/N-And with that, we (finally) have the sixth chapter. Huge apologies to everyone, I became extremely swamped with school, dance and everything else. I had to push this to the side and had to straighten out any B's I had in classes. Then generally, I had some difficulties with this chapter. It became a beast of its own as I wrote it. You were supposed to find out what happened with Roz's group in this chapter, but after I added McCready and the military, it got to be over 6,000 words and decided to split it into two parts. I know how fond all of you are of cliffhangers ;)**

**What was astounding as I worked on this in the past months was the amount of people reading it. It's been three and a half months since and update, but it continues to be read, reviewed, followed, and favorited. So far, I've had 15 favorites and 24 followers, and I am extremely happy with all of the positive response I've been getting. It is the most exciting thing to me, and I thank each and every one of you for following me through this crazy idea I hatched. I would lovelovelovelovelove it if you would all review it as we start to get to the meat of the story. So as always, plead read and review **

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	7. An Ember Can Start an Inferno Part 2

Carole cried out, burying her face in Burt's shoulder. Emma gasped, despair filling her heart. _How could this have happened? It couldn't be this bad already_, Emma thought. _We can't have to do another funeral already. It's only been a day._

Puck had moved the cars and he drove the van in from the gate. "Roz." Emma said, her voice frighteningly small even in this new, quiet world. "What happened?"

The swim coach looked towards her group, not wanting the adults to see her face. "It was chaos. Even worse than Franken-mommy's vajayjay over there." Roz made the joke half-heartedly as if she wasn't in the mood, which truth be told, wasn't far from the truth.

"Start from the top." Emma encouraged, resting a hand on the other woman's back.

"Alright." Roz said, straightening her back and assessing the small group standing in the lot. First at Sue, then Burt and Carole, then Emma, and then…. Roz's mind stopped for a second when looking at the military pilot. He stared back, shaking his head ever so slightly, almost imperceptible to the casual observer. She gave him one last look and cast her gaze towards everyone else. "The top? Y'all sure you want to hear it all?"

"Of course." Sue said, startling everyone with the gentility with which she said the two words.

"It's not pretty. But I guess you figured that out by now…" Roz began.

* * *

><p>The hand had a death grip around Roz's neck as she thrashed and tried to yell for help. It seemed to have come through the shelf as the presumed zombie tried to bring her into his awaiting maw. "Help." She managed to choke out before black spots started appearing around her vision due to the dearth of air.<p>

Vaguely she heard and saw Puck rounding the corner of the aisle. "Beast?" She thought she heard him ask.

And then the person let go.

Roz gasped and dropped to the floor, sucking in as much oxygen as she could. "Beast?" someone else asked. Finn this time. But Roz was confused. Why were they suddenly interested in some animal?

"Boys? What the hell are you doing here?" another voice asked. This one was unfamiliar. It was female and not part of her group. No. It was familiar. She knew it anywhere.

"Shannon!" Roz yelped, jumping up onto her feet.

The voice from the other aisle chuckled. "And Roz? I must be hallucinating now."

Roz ran to the end of the aisle and turned down the next, seeing Shannon Beiste standing with the group of boys that she took with her. Wendye and Mindy stood awkwardly at the end of the aisle.

"Hey." Beiste said with a smirk. "Sorry about the whole 'I'm going to choke you to death' thing. Thought you were one of them."

"Shut up." Roz said, grinning wider than any of those in attendance had ever seen her before. "What are you doing here, Shannon?"

Her smile fell and she looked away from everyone, opting instead to stare at the floor. "It's… It's Coot." She said, obviously choking back a sob. "He isn't doing too well."

Finn eyed his coach suspiciously. "What do you mean, Coach?"

"He came home yesterday with a limp, which he said was just because of one of the players, but he got worse and worse, and then… I forced him to take off his shoes, and there it was. Just a small little bite on his ankle that just kept bleedin'. He eventually told me the truth, that one of those things was under his car, and it reached out and got him. We cried for a bit, and I sat right next to him, all through the night until about six this mornin' when he reached over and told me with those horrible, bloodshot eyes, 'Go get a gun. You need to protect yourself, Shannon, and you need to kill me if it comes to that. I love you….' And then he just fell right then. He was still breathin' but I knew it wasn't long. I brought him and I here, and just took one of these off the shelves and sat with him in the back office. He… He stopped breathin' a little while ago." The stoic woman shed only a singular tear in the entire retelling, but her words were full of passion and a love that would never be reclaimed.

No one spoke for a while, all afraid to look at the distraught coach, until Roz finally broke the silence. "Did… Did you do it?"

Beiste swallowed and finally looked at her fellow coach. She said nothing until the faint thudding of a backroom door caught their attention. It was a thud, coming every few seconds as if someone was throwing themselves against a door, which someone (or more likely, some_thing_ was doing). "I just couldn't…" Beiste said weakly.

"Shannon…" Roz whispered, hand clutched to her chest. It seemed impossible that the strong woman was not able to spare her ailing husband. Emma was strong enough, a fact that still surprised Roz to this very moment. The small stab wound in Will's cranium said it all. "You can't leave him like that. He deserves better."

"I can't!" Beiste yelled, punching her fist out and rattling the shelf. "I try to, and all I see is his face staring back at me… It's not fair."

Roz was at a loss for words. Seeing the normally strong woman so defeated and downtrodden left her with a feeling of utter hopelessness. "Will… He got bitten." Roz said, struggling to find something, anything to say.

The football coach's eyes widened and she gripped the shelf next to her, knuckles instantly turning white. "Will… Oh god. What about Emma?"

"She did it. She stabbed him in the head, before he turned, like the radio told us all to do." Roz said softly. "Shannon…" she drifted, once again at a loss for words. Finally, she reached for a pack of bullets and inserted one in one of the guns she had. In a silent gesture, she handed it to Beiste, who took it. She let only one tear roll down her cheek and walked past Roz into the back rooms.

Roz stood speechless as the sound of Beiste's footsteps receded into the back rooms. She vaguely heard the boys calling her name, but it didn't register. Seeing Beiste, the woman she had always held in such high regard, near her breaking point defeated the swim coach, totally and utterly.

Beiste reached the end of the hallway, the doorway to the office on her right. The rhythmic thudding of her undead husband pounding against the door increased in pce, and with it went her heartbeat, like an iron hammer desperately attempting egress from her body. It was so strange to think that this time two days ago Coot was coming home from his job and she had dinner made. Why were they all treating this so calmly? It seemed so strange-now the world was in turmoil and on the other side of the door that same man was entirely different and she now had to kill him She wished she had done it before her friends had shown up. Now she was a coward, in a world where cowardice was rewarded with a bite to your neck.

The woman sighed nd leaned in to the door. The thudding could be heard loudly through the door now, intermingled with snarls, grunts, and growls. "Coot." Beiste whispered. "I-I know you can't hear me, but listen. I'm safe now. My friends found me, and I'll protect them. I'll protect them better than I protected you." She fell silent, faced with the enormity of what lay in front of her.

"Coach?" Finn asked the silent swim coach. "Earth to Roz?"

"Don't call me that again." Roz growled. "I'm fine."

Wendye and Mindy walked over to the group of teenagers and the seemingly catatonic swim coach. "Excuse us." Wendye said. "We don't mean to be rude, but with her, I think that the car won't be able to fit us all. Mindy's van is parked in the parking deck twenty or so blocks away. Seats eight."

Roz looked at the women. They had a point. Driving downtown in a five-seat car with seven passengers seemed almost comical. "Of course. Makes the most sense at least. When-"

The gunshot that interrupted the conversation made them all jump. Within seconds, Beiste came back, her face impassive and stony. Roz threw her a small smile and apt her on the shoulder. "We'll make a grave for him at McKinley." Beiste nodded, not wanting the trouble, but appreciating the sentiment. "We're going to get Mindy's van from the deck in town." She announced. "We'll split into two groups. Wendye, you'll-"

"Why are we splitting up, Fred?" Puck interjected. "This isn't Scooby-Doo. We're not some ginger that you can boss around because you obviously bang her in the back of the Mystery Machine. We're not splitting up. We've already dug one grave because of that."

Roz set her jaw. "Because, Puckerman, we still need supplies. And one group can get them while the other one is getting the car. We've still got an hour or two of daylight."

Puck crossed his arms. She had a point, but he didn't like it. "Fine. But anyone bites it; it's on you, Mochaccino."

A smirk appeared on Roz's face. "Now, we need Mindy to come because she's got the keys. Dave will come 'cause he's a good shot. Beiste and I will round out that group. Rest of you… Go to the Asian market across the street. See of they've got anything."

"How do we know when to come for you?" Wendye asked.

"Two quick shots, one right after the other." Roz responded after a thought. "And if anything happens… Make it to the train and the railroad crossing."

The group agreed with minimal opposition. It was futile to argue with the swim coach. Everyone eventually nodded in agreement. As they all walked outside, Blaine muttered "This is insane."

"'Bout as insane as that hairstyle, Anderson!" Roz responded from the front.

* * *

><p>With the time of day waning, the group quickly set out to ready themselves for the mission ahead. All of the artillery had been loaded to capacity and the guns and ammo had all but been exorcised from the shop. In all, there were forty-seven assorted guns and over twenty-five-hundred bullets. No one said it, but they all realized the absurdity of the situation, surrounding a pile of guns and bullets in the front of a ransacked store. Only Dave, Beiste and Puck had ever handled firearms before, and even that exposure was minimal. All of them had a gun with extra bullets, but the likelihood of them coming in handy outside of a direct shot to the head was slim to none.<p>

Roz was talking to Mindy and Wendye while Finn and Puck were talking in front of the broken store window. With the abysmal state it was in, it baffled them why all of the guns hadn't been taken from it already. Still, though, the streets were empty, a fact that loomed over all of them as they talked.

"So what do you think of those two new chicks?" Finn asked Puck.

"Oh… Them." Puck said distractedly. "They seem fine. Wendye's hot as hell." There was little emotion in his voice.

Fin wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he knew when his best friend was upset. "Puck, what's up?"

"Nothing, just-" Puck began.

"Puck." Finn asserted, dismissing any thought of denial Puck had cooked up.

Puck scowled and said "You get a bad feeling about Washington? Like she's unnecessarily taking control of us?"

Finn frowned, thinking of what the woman had done. Nothing she had done seemed reprehensible to Finn. "No, not really. Sue's pregnant, so she's the most fit adult we have to lead…" Finn stopped, realization dawning on him. "You're jealous aren't you?"

Puck scoffed. "Hardly. I don't like being chained down, bro. And that's what it feels like she's doing."

"Sam said she was good though. Bit of a hard-ass during drills, but likeable." Finn reasoned.

The answer was received with a roll of the eyes from Puck. "Whatever. Let's just make sure we get back to the school alive."

The two walked back over to the group. Blaine and Dave had been talking about the latter's shooting ability and they soon joined as well. They had all been unintentionally talking in clipped whispers and now it was strangely silent once again. Roz began speaking about safety, but most of it was just speculation. They knew so little about the life forms that now ruled the world. Even so, Blaine noticed how she eyed every single person protectively as she spoke. It elicited a feeling of safety. No matter what she was doing, her Eckleburg eyes were always watching over him and Kurt. He laughed inside of himself. Even if it was the end of the world, he was still a hopeless romantic-if he's had the ability, he would've grabbed his fifty-year old copy of _The Great Gatsby. _It had always been one of his favorites. When he had read his grandmother's ancient editions as a boy, he could relate to Jay's longing for the green light, the love he had wished he had. Now that he had just that, he wondered if the green light still existed. He figured it did-it was just its meaning that had changed.

He drifted out of his thoughts when the group started drifting apart. The plan had been this: the group that went to get the van would walk there, figuring as the others would need the car more if trouble arose. The latter would check out the adjoining shops and wait for two shots fired in quick succession-the signal for them to get in the old car and drive to the parking deck, where the others would have had the awaiting van ready. They'd then make their way back to the school.

"Are we sure we all can't fit in the current car?" Mindy worried.

"There's eight of us now." Roz reasoned. "If we all got in that little car, we'd be the most diverse car since _Driving Miss Daisy_."

There wasn't much argument to that. Beiste was huge. There'd be no way they could have fit her in there. The group embraced and said very quick good-byes. No one wanted to say more than they had to.

The four walked away that were meant to go to the parking deck while the other quartet walked to the Asian market across the street. Not a sound was heard except for the adjoining footsteps against concrete.

"Alright then." Wendye said once they reached the front door. "Let's go in."

Puck rolled his eyes. "We don't need to go in there. We've got plenty of stuff at the school. Roz is just wasting our time. Why don't we take a page from the Brits and live while we're young?" He threw a wink to Wendye who giggled in response.

A smile played across her face. "But Puck… If we did that we'd be disobeying orders." Her fingers reached up and tugged at the dip in the collar of Puck's V-Neck. "And I _know_ you must be good at disobedience." Her disposition suddenly changed nad happily said "Come on!" and opened the door.

In the back, Finn leaned over to Blaine and said "Five bucks says they end up screwing."

"Just five?" was Blaine's response to the obvious flirtations. He noticed how sheer her pajamas were suddenly. Finn snickered in response.

The store was dark, its lights shut off. It was small, with a register to the right and a few aisles that they could see in the dark shadows. Wendye found the lights and clicked them on.

The shelves were completely empty.

But unlike the gun store, everything was perfectly neat. Between the silence and the emptiness, it was utterly eerie.

"Well this blows." Puck yawned.

Wendye chuckled. "You're telling me. Fan out I guess. See if there's anything left."

Finn stalked over to the far side of the store and went down an aisle. There were a few items, but upon further investigation it turned out to be assorted knick-knacks and nothing of use. He sighed in frustration and went over to the next aisle where Blaine was futilely investigating empty shelves. "It's the strangest thing." Blaine said to Finn. "Judging by the last store, you'd have guessed that people would've been tipping shelves over to get food."

"Let's just go." Finn said, defeated by it all. Roz had sent them off on a wild goose chase. "Where are Wendye and Puck?"

In answer to the question, the two heard Wendye giggling and a back door being shut. Finn grimaced. "Nice."

"Don't you get tired of it all?" Blaine asked as they walked out of the aisle. "I couldn't stand constantly sitting around while my friend goes off humping everything that moves."

Finn shrugged. It had been that way all through high school-he knew it wasn't going to change. "After a while, you just get used to it, I guess."

"Should we go get them?" Blaine asked.

"Good luck trying," Finn muttered. There wasn't anyone that could stop Puck while he… Did his thing.

"What about the back? Maybe there's a storage room or something?" Blaine suggested.

Finn sighed, but agreed with the use of their time. It was worth a shot. The pair walked to the back of the store, where an opening led to the back hallway. Though the only doors led to back bathrooms, there was a set of stairs that stopped at a landing at the second floor.

"Where do you think that leads to?" Finn wondered aloud. It couldn't be a storage room (if it was, it was a very inconvenient one, being at the top of a tall set of stairs).

"Some of these stores were made with apartments built on top of them." Blaine explained, his uncle having worked on building a lot of the town. "That's probably what it is."

Finn wrinkled his nose in confusion. "Why would you live in a tiny apartment above a grocery store?"

"It _is _an Asian market." Blaine said as they began the ascent up the stairs. "A cramped apartment is probably better than what they'd get over there."

Finn yawned loudly. "Okay, I didn't need a history lesson, dude."

"Well it's not so much a history lesson than current…" Blaine began, but stopped at a familiar scent. "Smell that?"

Finn sniffed the air and recognized the scent immediately, the adjoining food having been a favorite of his as a kid. "Egg rolls? Hell yeah, man."

Blaine knocked on the door and waited. From the other side there was the sound of rustling and general busyness. People were obviously rushing and in a hurry. "Hello?" Blaine called out. "Anyone home?" A female voice was then heard talking hurriedly in Chinese.

"What's going on in there?" Finn responded, an eyebrow raised at the eeriness of it all.

"Ma'am?" Blaine asked, hoping the more polite term would elicit a better response. Instead, the woman was now yelling in her native tongue, at a volume which was quite easy to hear through the wooden door. Neither of them had any idea what she was saying, or any reason for the sudden level of alarm. "We don't mean any harm."

She finally switched to English. "That's exactly what _he _said," she replied scathingly with a thick accent. "He was lying of course. Tried to off every single one of us. He got Emilia. Then it all went downhill for him, I can promise that." She was at a near whisper as she uttered the final words.

Both boys were perplexed. The woman seemed horribly unstable; they could almost imagine her stroking a rifle as she spoke.

"We aren't armed." Finn lied, although he slipped his small gun in the waistband of his jeans, and gestured with his head for Blaine to do the same. The latter did not, however, and replied by simply shaking his head. He silently pulled his gun out as he did so.

"LIES!" The woman screamed.

"Mama?" The speaker was a much younger female voice this time. "What's going on?

"I wanna know too!" another child yelled, this one male.

She spoke in a high, breathy tone now. "Go back to your room, sweeties. Please."

"Mommy, why do you already have the gun?" the boy asked. Finn and Blaine's eyes widened in response to this.

Her voice was not hiding how much she wanted the children to go back in their room now. "Mommy's dealing with something right now, please-"

"Oh for God's sake, Addie, will you just let them in already?" A deeper voice called, this one more distant, as if from a back room.

She breathed heavily and muttered under her breath, but opened the door nonetheless. Inside was a tidy little living room with an adjoined kitchen and a hallway that led to bedrooms. "I apologize for her." The same male voice said, sounding as if it was coming from the kitchen doorway. The hum of a microwave followed him. He soon came out, a short Asian man with an unreadable demeanor. "Kids, will you please go back to your rooms?" The man asked tiredly. The phrase was a question, but it had the firmness of a command. The children grumbled, but the petite Asian man was seemingly had more authority than the seemingly psychotic mother as the kids stalked off to their room. "Come, come." The man offered warmly, ushering the teens in to sit down in two chairs across from the sofa. As they did so, Blaine stuck his gun in his rear pocket, hidden from view but within reach.

The two looked at each other, rigidly attentive to the bizarre proceedings on display. "It-it's alright." Finn stammered.

The man smiled and settled into the sofa in front of them. His wife stood next to him, a gun cocked in her hand. "Please, ignore Addie. She's gone round the bend since yesterday."

Blaine raised a brow quizzically. "Round the bend? What could've happened, mister…?"

"Ah, of course. It's Kevin." He said plainly. The deceiving smile refused to leave his face, unsettling the both of them. "You see, ever since all of this has begun, progressively wackier and crazier people have been walking around. Just yesterday, a man came by and ate our daughter. Right in front of us, too." He said it all matter-of-factly, as if reading a story from a novel.

Blaine on the other hand, was entirely horrified. "Oh my god… I am so sorry." It seemed all too early to start speaking of cannibalism.

The man showed a small flash of remorse before saying "I do suppose it was our fault. We took all of our food for ourselves as you saw downstairs. If we hadn't, he wouldn't have found us up here and taken Emilia."

Addie cried out in the corner before straightening up and remaining impassive. "Kevin, you and I both know he had what was coming for him!" she said.

Blaine swallowed hard, not liking where this was going. "What did he have coming for him?" He asked, not wanting to find out the answer.

"Death you idiot!" The woman cackled. "Killed that son of a bitch, we did."

Finn had had enough. Hearing of another person eating their daughter was one thing, but sitting in the same room as a murderer was another. "What the hell man?" He yelled, standing up with a stamp of his foot.

"SIT DOWN!" Addie roared, firing a bullet at the floor in front of Finn's feet. He yelped and did exactly as she told him. Neither Finn nor Blaine wanted to listen to these lunatics, but Addie was clearly far more proficient with artillery than either of them were and did not want to take their chances firing at her.

"Papa?" the voice of the restless son came from the hallway, impatience having gotten the better of him. "Is it time _yet_?"

"Of course, kids." Kevin said to the children, who quickly rushed into the crowded living room. He then turned to the scared-shitless teenagers. "I'm sorry you'll have to see this. It was supposed to be a family affair."

"And what affair is that?" Blaine bravely shot back, not fully realizing the risk he was taking.

The father and kids lined up behind the coffee table and in front of the sofa. Addie stood to the side with an evil grin on her face. Suddenly the microwave dinged, signaling its completion. "Wonderful." He said, matching his wife's unnerving Cheshire Cat-like grin.

Finn sniffed the air, remembering the smell of egg rolls that permeated the air. "Dude, why did you make egg rolls if you weren't going to eat them?" He asked with a scrunched brow. When no one reacted, Finn got up to get them from the small kitchen, his stomach having taken over all sense of his mind. Blaine's nerves twisted in nervousness.

"The smell of corpses is completely dreadful." Kevin remarked, sniffing the air as if the smell had returned. "We had to mask it with something."

Finn gasped when he reached the kitchen. "That's a body!" He yelled across the room.

"What did you think we did with him?" Kevin laughed. "Guess someone else will have to deal with you later."

Blaine heard the shot before he registered its repercussions. He should have realized that Addie's gun was aimed towards his friend's chest, but she had moved beyond the far reaches of his peripheral vision in the far corner of the room. Blaine hardly even recognized the sound of three more gunshots, and the sounds of the bodies hitting the floor that accompanied them. Time seemed entirely stagnant.

Then, in a torrent of sights and emotions, the past moments rushed into Blaine's awareness. He shot from the chair and ran over to Finn's motionless body, denying with every ounce within him that he was dead, though the spreading red stain said otherwise. It was unclear at first where the bullet entered, but as Blaine tore the shirt from Finn's body, he found that it had entered in his right side, clipping cleanly through it. With a dearth of medical supplies, Blaine applied pressure to the bleeding wound. Despite his endeavors, there was still a pool of blood that was steadily increasing in its largeness. Finn was rolled over by his friend (at which point the former moaned in agony, instilling hope in the latter's heart) and upon investigation, Blaine found that the bullet had left Finn's back as well. All sense of hope that Blaine had felt dissipated in that moment.

"It's a far more merciful death." A toneless voice said, making every cell in Blaine's body jump.

He stared at the tall Asian woman whose hands still gripped the gun. "How the hell is getting shot by a deranged psycho merciful in any goddamn way?" Blaine screamed, hands gripping the wound in Finn.

"Would you rather him be torn apart limb from limb by those monsters out there?" Addie quipped evenly. All sense of lunacy was gone, replaced instead by total insensitivity.

Blaine lacked an answer, but Addie had one. "You wouldn't. And I wouldn't either. So why try? We all die anyway. The only difference is that this is voluntary."

"And getting shot against a refrigerator?" Blaine spat in a tearful reproach.

She ignored him and checked her gun. "A single bullet left. It's a shame considering you friend blew the first one for you. If I still had it though, both of us could be dead." She tutted her disapproval to the two. "What makes you want to live in this world? It's deplorable." Addie paused, staring at the boy who stared right back at her with contemptuous eyes, full of more fire than Hell itself.

"If I didn't have to block the bullet wounds," Blaine said, his calm voice surprising even him "I'd strangle you with my own hands." He did not know where it had come from, but he pulled from the deepest ire within him. He even believed it himself.

"Now dearie," Addie frowned in a silent reprimand . "I'm sure you would have never said that till today. However…" Addie began. "I envy your tenacity. Makes me wish I had it…. Since you so desperately want your boyfriend to live… First-Aid is beneath the bed."

It was the sound of Addie's body hitting the ground, not the shot of the gun, that caused Blaine to break down. Tears diluted the blood, the two mixing in the pool on the floor. Seconds after the final shot, the door flew open and Puck and Wendye stood in the door frame. "We heard the…" Puck began, but trailed off at the sight of his bleeding friend. "Oh my god." He whimpered. Wendye cried out and buried her face in his shoulder.

Moments later, Blaine felt the two wrap their arms around him and Finn; all four huddled together on the cold tiled floor of the kitchen next to the cannibal's corpse, the very thing they didn't want Finn to become.

* * *

><p>The streets were completely desolate. They didn't encounter a single zombie and, save for the occasional traffic jam, the group made good time.<p>

But not good enough.

Among them there was a lack of dialogue. Anything that had to be said was conveyed through hand gestures and inaudible gasps. Besides, with the exception of Roz and Beiste, none of them had been in the same room for more than a few minutes. The quartet fell into a silent dance of learning about one another through those aforementioned movements. Dave learned that Mindy had been a gymnast when she skirted lithely around an area of shattered glass from a crashed car-a short question revealed the guess to be true. Mindy herself found Roz to have been in color guard as she absentmindedly tossed her rifle up and down in various patterns as they walked. It wasn't an ideal situation, but when one was walking through their war-torn town, it was the most anyone could do. A block from the parking deck, the group turned a corner and stopped dead. "Holy shit." Roz whispered.

Many strange things had been seen in their walk to the complex, but nothing topped this. An upturned truck sat in the middle of the road, its hood crushed into the asphalt. A hole in the concrete wall of the third floor of the deck showed the origin of the vehicle before it crashed into the ground. A pool of blood next to the car confirmed what none of them wanted to say.

"Keep going." Beiste said gruffly. "We're almost there."

Mindy was almost to the entrance when she made an about face and walked back to the other three. "There're two bodies on the ground right over there." She gasped.

"Were they… Or…" Dave said, not wanting to say either of the taboo words.

"Turned already." Mindy said definitively. "You can see it in their eyes. What's left of them." She added with grimness on her face.

That's when they heard the shot.

"Was that them?" Dave asked frantically.

"Can't be anyone else." Roz said, arming her rifle. "Either way, we need to-" she was interrupted by the sound of another shot. "Go. RUN!" she yelled, skipping the speech and giving orders. The group shot towards the parking deck elevator when three more shots rang out, picking up their speed even more. Beiste's hand slapped the elevator button and the doors opened releasing a pair of corpses who fell onto the ground at their feet. Mindy clapped a hand to her mouth and the other three expressed similar feelings of disgust.

Then another shot rang out. And it wasn't theirs.

"Damn it, we're running out of time!" Roz yelled and ran over to the stairs door and yanked it open. The four piled in and Mindy and Roz, the more nimble of them all, made it to the fourth floor first. The lone blue van sat in the middle of the top level. Mindy reached into her pocket and disengaged the lock, hopping into the driver's seat while Roz jumped into the passenger's side. They shot back to the stair door where Dave and Beiste were jjust emerging. Both jumped in the sliding side door as soon as Mindy hit the button. Quickly, they shot down the ramp to the third floor.

It seemed bizarre that only a few minutes ago there wasn't much on their minds. Now they were spent racing ot figure out how to get all eight out of the town alive.

Mindy was racing too, turning the corners and nearly fish tailing the car. "Damn, girl." Roz grunted around one particularly sharp turn. "For a tiny-ass white girl, you sure can drive fast."

The driver only huffed in acknowledgement as she turned the final corner and was met with a horrific sight.

Hundreds upon hundreds of zombies were running and chasing something or someone with a vicious pursuit. None of them looked like they did in the movies-it seemed that it had been too little time for their bodies to begin to rot-and the group even recognized some of the people running by. All of the bodies running by seemed too human to be horrifying monsters.

Either way, the group was stuck.

"Damn it!" Mindy yelled, honking the horn of the car as she slammed an angry fist on the wheel.

Then all hell broke loose. The zombies, likely running after something unachievable, now stopped at the sound of the very existential sound of the horn. Twenty or thirty zombies meandered into the deck and as soon as they saw the headlights in their faces, quickly picked up speed.

Mindy was meanwhile trying to turn around. Not wanting to hit the other parked cars, she had a semi-difficult time until they were facing the other way, back up the ramp they had just driven down. Others had filed in and about eight dozen of them were ascending the same ramp. Mindy slammed on the gas and shot around the corner going to the top.

"Where did they come from?" Beiste yelled.

"Chasing after somethin' probably." Roz yelled back, white knuckled as she clenched the door handle.

"We'll be trapped on the top." Mindy gasped as the reality sunk in.

"What about the hole on the third floor?" Dave asked, as they rounded the corner to the second.

"We can't do that!" Beiste said, shaking her head. "Are you crazy? Did you see what happened with that truck?"

"What about the store next to us? What if we jumped down onto it and then down to the ground?" The gears in Dave's head were turning, wondering whether the van could make the one story jump across the street. "Pull up over here." Dave said, jumping out of the van while it was still moving.

"David! Jump back in here!" Roz yelled at the teen.

Dave ignored her and walked over to the hole. It was in the corner and adjoining side of the concrete wall. He noticed a large crack in the remaining conrete and attempted moving it. It only budged a small amount and it was easily a couple tons.

"David Karofsky! What in the hell are you doin'?" Roz had gotten out of the car and moved over to where Dave was standing. "We need to get back in the car."

"Move this first." Dave said distractedly, gesturing to the slab.

"We don't have time for this!" Roz said in one quick breath. In the background Dave could see the first few of them on the ramp to their level.

"Please coach. I know you haven't known me for a while, but trust me on this. You want to end up like this?" Dave exclaimed with a creeping edge of desperation emerging in his voice. He walked over a few feet where four zombies had just emerged from around the corner. He shot three of them, execution-style, with a surprisingly impeccable aim even though he hadn't touched a gun in eight months. "Do you want to end up like this?" He yelled to Roz, shooting the final enemy in the head.

Roz swallowed hard and nodded. More zombies were coming now. "We have to-" Dave began instructing her before finding it to be unnecessary. Roz tipped the concrete block over the edge where it plummeted to the ground and judging by the sound that was made when it hit the ground, a zombie was crushed in the process.

Dave gaped at the swim coach he knew so little about. "What the hell was that?" Dave asked, stunned by the burst of adrenaline. "It had to have been a couple tons of concrete easy." He said as they ran back to the van and jumped back in.

Roz grunted as she snapped her seatbelt in. Mindy slammed on the gas and swung around, narrowly missing an incoming zombie. "Don't ever doubt the strength of a lady." Roz said, keeping her gaze down. "It's rude."

Dave chuckled as Roz told Mindy to floor it. With the slab of concrete out of the way, there was a big enough hole for the van to shoot across to the other building. "Floor it." Roz commanded determination in her clenched jaw.

Mindy chewed her lip nervously and did just that. The van shot clear over the street below, landing on the store's roof with a thud. Behind them, zombies were stupidly following them out of the opening and hitting the pavement below.

Mindy drew a tentative breath, as if the small exhalation of air would affect the entire world. When nothing changed, she smiled and said "Well wasn't that-"

As soon as she began speaking, there was a thunderous cracking sound in the roof and, leaving no room for reaction, it caved in, sucking the van in with it. It crashed through the roof into the second floor, which gave way to the first. It fell with its front right corner first and the right side window exploded in a million pieces, scratching those in the car countless times with the small shards of glass. All of them screamed, even Roz, whose usual stoic demeanor was caught off guard by the fear of falling through two floors of plaster and wood. When the car settled on an enormous pile of rubble, a lighting fixture fell to the floor in a vivid explosion of light. With that, it was over and the room was silent.

* * *

><p>Puck ran back from the rooms with large bandages in his hand. "Crazy Asians took all the stuff from the store and hid it in the kids' room. Alcohol was in the crib, though." He laughed at the irony and took a long swig of an imported wine. "Here. They ahd this." He gave Blaine the bandages.<p>

"Thanks." Blaine said, taking them. He had moved Finn with some difficulty to the couch in the living room, quickly staining the dated green fabric. Wendye stood in a corner, nervously biting her fingers. Blaine had told her to stay out of the way, angry at her and Puck for not being there. He quickly and awkwardly slipped Finn's shirt off his torso, laughing morbidly as he did so. "You know if I was still a Boy Scout, this is where I'd get kicked out based on sexual harassment charges."

Puck rolled his eyes and took another sip of the wine in response. "Now is not the time to take advantage of him while you can. Isn't a gay guy doing Boy Scouts the equivalent of RuPaul joining the Ku Klux Klan, though?"

"Well it's a good thing I was a Scout then. Where you learn to apply a bandage and to never kiss boys in the same class." Blaine retorted drily. He wrapped the bandges and gauze around Finn's body like an amateur, then stood up. "I've done what I can." He said. There were large square gauze pads on both holes and a long gauze wrapped around his torso several times and tied in a little knot. The bullet had only clipped him it seemed, passing right between two ribs on his right side, an inch or so away from missing.

"Hot damn. A gay boy scout. Don't you get cuter by the minute?" Wendye said with a smirk.

Blaine's face fell when his gaze shifted to her. "Wendye. Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Well I can't imagine going out there would be too smart, would it?" Her black hair fell to her face when she said this and she brushed it back at Blaine's forbidding stare. "Lead the way, boss."

He led her outside the door on the landing and shut the door. Blaine crossed his arms and said "Listen, what you did with Puck… I don't care that you did it. He goes after adult women all the time, and you can do whatever you want when we get back to the high school. But right here, right now?"

Wendye was not looking at Blaine, having a strange fixation with a nail on the stairwell. She wasn't sure if she wanted to share such personal information with this seventeen year old, but she figured it only made sense if she was going to be living with them for the foreseeable future. A sigh escaped her lips. "It's nymphomania." She said simply.

Blaine stood, his face slack-jawed with surprise. "What?"

"It's a pathological addiction to sex. I was… Abused as a kid. I've had it for as long as I can remember. As a matter of fact, ever since Mindy and I met your group, all I could think about was which guy I wanted first." Her words came spilling out, tripping over each other like a reservoir was opened. Unconsciously, she added "It's a real shame you're gay." She graced her fingers across his thigh then stopped herself.

Blaine was absolutely wordless. He had no idea what to say, even ignoring the indirect flirtations from Wendye. The only association he had with nymphomania was when he and Kurt had binge-watched _American Horror Story: Asylum_ together. Finally, he said, "Well Puck is almost the same way at least." A grin crossed his face, even despite the situation. It was an attempt to add levity to the suddenly somber situation. In a way, he was disappointed-he had a whole monologue rehearsed in his head and to think that the solution was a simple syndrome was almost a let-down.

Wendye smiled in response. "Yeah. You ever seen _Scream_?"

"Yes, and I've got Kurt's nail marks in my hand to prove it." Blaine grumbled, fondly remembering the night when the pair watched the movie together and Kurt refused to let go of Blaine's hand the whole time. He had felt like a father holding a wife's hand during childbirth it hurt so much.

"They said that the only rule in a horror movie was to never have sex. Guess I' screwed then." Wendye laughed, an exuberant trill of happiness.

Blaine laughed too and said "Yeah, well-"

He was cut short by four gunshots, fired in quick succession, one right after the other.

"Shit." Wendye swore. "Could it be any worse of a time?" She burst the door into the apartment open. Puck was crouching over Finn with a half-drunk glass of water in his hand. Finn's eyes were open, but he still retained his deathly pallor.

"Was that them?" He asked, his voice a hoarse and hollow sound. At least he was somehow awake.

"We can only hope it wasn't." Wendye muttered.

"Can you… Can you walk?" Blaine breathed from behind her, too afraid to speak louder.

As a response, Finn shut his eyes. He kept them closed and Blaine was afraid he had slipped away again. Then with a loud grunt and movements awkward even for Finn, he stood up with a hand gripped on Puck's arm.

"Careful, bro." The latter warned, steadying his ailing best friend.

Finn stood all the way up now, his legs slightly wobbling. Wendye walked over to him and gripped his other arm. "Do you need a hand?" she quipped.

Finn shook his head no. "I need my shirt. It's kinda awkward with… Everyone in the room." He said, obviously only talking about Wendye's gender and Blaine's sexuality.

Blaine rolled his eyes and tossed Finn's blood soaked blue polo shirt to him, having held it the whole time. "You know I already took your shirt off and put the bandages on. I'm halfway there." He joked, winking to Finn, who quickly shrugged on his shirt.

Finn walked slowly to the door, saying "I don't need your help dude." Puck pursed his lips but backed off while Wendye did the same.

"You sure?" For once, there was genuine concern in Puck's voice.

"I was gonna be in the military. Don't they, like, get shot all the time?" Finn replied.

The four made it outside with little difficulty. Although it would have thought to do the opposite, every step seemed to renew a little bit of strength in the generally inept teenager with a hole in his side. They reached the small car and Puck opened the door for Finn. "Thanks." He murmured before clambering in the back row with an obscene amount of grunting.

Blaine sighed and got in after him. The entire situation was bizarre, from the desolate streets to the walking corpses to Finn who now had a dime-sized hole in his chest. But the weirdest part to him was how easily he reacted to it. After all, Schuester only died that morning, which still brought on a pang of remorse, yet here they were that evening going for supplies. It seemed inhuman to him. But then, maybe with the unreal becoming reality, his mind had simply switched to survival mode.

His reverie was broken when he heard Puck and Wendye shut their respective doors. "You doing OK back there, Finn?" Wendye asked dutifully. The boy simply nodded and gazed out the window, his arm wrapped around his midsection.

She had nearly put the key in the ignition when Blaine said forcefully from the back "Wait. There's something weird going on here. Look at the glass."

The driver stopped and put the key on her thigh. Indeed, there was a slight vibration in the glass similar to a very small earthquake beginning. Even the dashboard was shifting as there was the steady sound of plastic hitting plastic, the repetitive tat-tat-tat sound foreboding an ominous conclusion. Next to Wendye's leg, a half-drunk coffee rippled as well. She grimaced and said "This is way too close to _Jurassic Park_."

Puck snorted and said "Please let this be a T-Rex then," already anticipating the outcome.

The group turned their heads unanimously, dreading what was coming. There was nothing at first until a person shot around the corner a couple blocks behind. At first, they thought he was a zombie, until about a hundred of them came from the same corner as well, with even more still pouring out.

At the same time as each other, Puck yelled to drive and Blaine told Wendye to pop the trunk. "Shit!" she yelled, opening the rear compartment in the ignition and punching the trunk button, opening the trunk door. She started the car forward at a crawl, only around ten miles an hour, and the incoming person got the idea. With a sudden burst of energy as the end was in sight, his speed increased and then jumped in the open trunk, slamming the door shut as he did so. With a larger target in sight, the mob of the undead pressed forward.

Wendye then slammed on the accelerator as she said "Blaine, press the button and lean your seat forward. Let whoever was running inside."

The former Warbler nodded and reached for the button next to the headrest. He pushed it and the seat leaned forward. A pale hand reached out from within the trunk and an all-too familiar voice said "Not the smoothest landing, but it'll do." His head popped through as well and their suspicions were confirmed.

It was Sebastian.

* * *

><p>The van was still running which was a good sign for all of them. Mindy turned the ignition off and then it was silent and dark. Then, a light shone from the driver's seat into the dark room that their car sat in the middle of. "Everyone alright?" she asked breathily, pocket flashlight in hand.<p>

Roz groaned, her forehead plastered to the dashboard. She sat up, rubbing her face. "Some broken-ass glass, but other than that, I'm good." The slightly cut up woman said. The two in the back muttered similar agreements of discomfort. Dave was brushing off granules of glass off himself and the seat he and Beiste shared.

Mindy dismounted from her seat in the driver's side. The van sat on a pile of broken wood, plaster, and glass. One of the tail lights had been crushed in as had a section of the back and side as if a car had rear-ended the corner of an old building. It didn't look ready to drive and Mindy growled in irritation. They'd have to drive it anyway, remembering the gunshots they had heard. "It's got a lot of damage out here." She said to those in the car.

"You think it can still drive?" Roz groaned when she too got out of the car. Mindy didn't have time to answer as a corpse fell through the hole to sky, having somehow made the leap across the gap, and it landed with a thud on the van. It rolled off, its body horribly disfigured. Mindy yelped but Roz walked over and stomped on his head, exploding in guts and blood. Her boot squelched out of the gooiness.

"We need to get out." Roz said, her demeanor suddenly urgent. Mindy nodded, frightened by the dust-covered antiques store. She knew Lucille Booth, the wizened old woman who owned the shop and felt bad about destroying her store. The two back in the car and inside, Beiste and Dave were cleaning up the wrecked interior.

"What the hell was that?" Beiste asked with a wooden plank in her hand, which she promptly threw through the broken window.

"A zombie made it across the gap and fell through." Mindy said as she got back in the car.

"Ugh that sounds disgusting.' Dave grimaced, having flinched at the sound of Roz's boot crushing the zombie's skull in. "Will it drive?" He asked.

"We'll see." Mindy said. "A big issue is all the stuff on the ground. Luckily we didn't get a flat but we don't want to get one." She turned the key in the ignition and it sputtered to life. All four sighed with relief, but realizing the urgency of the situation, they moved forward. Every crunch of material was even more opportunity for the van to attain a flat tire. The shot suddenly rang out in Mindy's head again and he pushed the van off the pile of rubbish hastily. Without hesitating, she crashed through the front doors.

With the giant crash, twenty or so stragglers were still ambling around outside. They quickly moved to the van which pulled forward and turned left, in the opposite direction they wanted to go, having been cut off from the other one. Roz swore under her breath as the car quickly gained speed in a matter of moments.

"Where are we going?" Mindy asked as they drove down Brown Oak Avenue.

"Turn right on Magenta." Beiste said from the back. "Takes you all the way down to Fowler and you'll be back to the shop in no time. Mindy took note and shot down the road to rescue their friends in distress.

* * *

><p>Behind their small car, roughly a couple hundred feet in hot pursuit, was the largest crowd of people any of them had ever seen. Feeling the necessity of speed over stealth, Wendye went far over the speed limit in the streets. The farther they went, it seemed, the less of the monsters remained. Between the roadblocks and a loss of interest, it slowly diminished.<p>

At the same time, there was panic and distress at the new intrusion in the vehicle. Puck demanded that the car be stopped to kick him out and be devoured by the others. Blaine was angry that he had even opened the trunk for him while Finn just wanted them all to be quiet. "Guys." He said as loudly as he could through the yelling. "Can we please just stop? It's making my head hurt." He said, continually clutching his wounded side while he laid his head on the cool glass.

"But Finn, that bastard-" Puck yelled scathingly.

"Yeah he's a bad dude." Finn said evenly. Blaine had reluctantly let Sebastian in who now sat in his seat and Blaine was in the middle. "But we're not leaving him to die like Mr. Schue." Fin finished wisely.

"Schue's dead?" Sebastian asked, surprise and concern in his voice.

"Yeah." Blaine replied simply, not looking at his enemy.

"Can someone please tell me how you know this kid?" Wendye asked, whizzing around a traffic jam by driving up on the curb, hair flying from the jarring shift in position. Finn groaned and gripped his side.

"Sebastian Smythe." Puck spat on the dashboard. "Rival Warbler and total douche bag."

"At your service." Sebastian said tartly.

Wendye tittered in the front. "I'll be damned. Even in the apocalypse, nerd singing can still be bloody." She said, thinking fondly of her glee club in high school. "Where'd you come from after all?" the car, past the jam, got back on the road. The impasse had severed flow of undead corpses behind them, but still around sixty stayed behind them.

"Well, I was hooking up with a guy on Windy Hill…" Sebastian began, clearing his throat. "Had to stay because the streets were so crowded and in such a mess. Didn't bother me, just more time with him. Nice body and you should've seen-"

"We can still throw you out at any time." Puck growled.

Sebastian rolled his eyes. "God, for such an "accepting" glee club, you sure don't let things go, do you? Anyway, so I woke up early the next morning and tried to get out of his apartment through the fire escape… Apparently, I'm enough weight to send it crashing to the ground. Fortunately, yours truly jumped back in the room before it fell, but the damage had been done. It made the loudest crash imaginable and they all seemed to swarm in and be attracted to that. I'm not sure how it got to be so bad so quickly…" He drifted off, thinking of the quick turn of events.

"So that's why the streets were so empty." Blaine said, realization creeping into his face.

"Oh, that's not even the half of it." Sebastian laughed, gesturing wildly. "Then, some idiot from across the street runs out and they all jump on him, getting even more. They smell blood like Honey Boo Boo smells snacks."

"Wait, what about the guy you were with?" Wendye asked with a furrowed brow.

Sebastian shrugged. "I don't know. He woke up really sick and I think he was hallucinating and he ran out in the hallway this evening-there were even more out there and… They all got him there. Fortunately, it gave me time to escape. Of course, I couldn't catch a break even then and they all decided to run after me because they had finished Idiot McGee from across the street."

"That's insane." Wendye said of his retelling. "Did you-"

She was cut off as a small explosion was heard. With dreading realization, Wendye realized that she hadn't been paying attention and ran over some road spikes a cop had laid down. All four wheels popped and the car came to a skidding halt.

Puck let loose some words that even Finn had never heard him say before. With the car stopped, the roughly forty that were still pursuing them ran quickly to the car, stopping any chance of a quick escape. "What the hell are we going to do?!" Puck yelled, veins popping out of his neck and spittle flying everywhere.

A thud was heard on his window and a zombie was there, plastering his face against the window, hands slapping the glass. More and more came, surrounding the car. Finn unconsciously whimpered in fear.

"Oh my god." Wendye breathed. It was the worst feeling of dread any of the five had ever felt. Finn had just been shot thirty minutes ago, and even then he didn't feel as close to death as he did now. They pressed closer to the glass, desperate for a way in.

"So we can't get out through a door…" Sebastian began slowly.

"Maybe it's like a video game or something." Fin said as a woman's mouth opened and closed only inches from his head. "We need to find a way out."

"The sun roof." Puck said, feeling an enormous weight lift of his chest. He slid the cover from it and darkening evening light poured in through the only glass in the car not covered in zombie faces. "Maybe we can get out through the top and shoot enough down to jump off."

"What about them reaching over the top?" Blaine asked. It's not a tall car, and I know some of them can reach over the top and pull us down.

"Do you see another option? We just have to get enough cleared." Puck growled.

In fact, none of them could find a better option. Feeling like a fish in a fish bowl was not a sensation any of them wanted to feel so very eager for an exit, Wendye hit the sunroof button and it almost noiselessly slid back. "Alright, so who's going first?"

With very unsurprising narcissism and ego, Sebastian stepped forward and desperately clawed his way out, stepping on the two front seats to hoist himself up. "It's actually not too bad." He called. "I'm definitely not getting pulled."

"And what a damn shame that is." Blaine muttered.

"Alright, buddy we'll get you out next." Puck said, reaching up and getting out as well.

Finn leaned forward and sighed in pain. He put his arms up and Puck grabbed them while Wendye got his feet to help him through. On the roof, the metal buckled from the weight but it did not give. The earlier estimation of forty turned out to be roughly fifty and they completely ensnared the car. Hands only got as far as the edge of the roof fortunately and then Wendye crawled up after Finn. Her body was halfway through when-

Blaine knew it would happen based simply off Murphy's Law. With a crash, the driver's side window caved in and eager hands groped Wendye's legs, pulling her back in the car.

From the roof, it was the most horrific sight imaginable. Her body fell back through the opening and with a sound like a crushed watermelon, her leg split open and she screamed in pain and terror. Blood flew up through the hole and onto the roof.

Blaine screamed as they tore open her calf, blood splashing everywhere including himself who sat terrified in the middle of the back row. With a stroke of sheer nature, they seemed far too occupied with Wendye's flailing and screaming body, attempting (but failing) to yank her through the fractured opening, giving him just enough time to blindly find an exit. Thinking of Sebastian's entrance, he slapped the button and leaned the adjoining seat forward. Just as he started crawling in the trunk, another window crashed and a hand shot through, blindly grabbing his foot. Blaine screamed again and kicked, getting it partially off. He made it all the way through but the arm did too. With blinding finality, he pulled the seat forward, cutting the zombie's fingers off.

Although safe from the outside, Blaine realized with stunning clarity that he was now stuck inside as he could not get out. He was completely trapped.

* * *

><p>They knew there was trouble when they saw the zombies milling around the store front. Mindy slammed on the brakes, not wanting to run into one. "What now?" she yelled, trying to turn the car around.<p>

"Make it back to the train, I guess." Roz said. We can only hope that they're there." Her eyes were welling up, though she wouldn't admit it to anyone.

"They can't be gone." Beiste said pitifully in the back, her voice empty with sadness. "You know, I've seen Puck and Finn get right back up after a twenty-person pileup. They can't be out for the count 'cause of this."

"All we can do is hope." Dave said.

And that was that.

* * *

><p>Finn stared openmouthed at the spectacle of blood and gore. He was so distracted by it that he hadn't realized that he had torn his wrappings. But when he began to see spots, he began to sway. "Oh my god… What's happening?"<p>

"Finn!" Puck cried out, reaching out and steadying him. "You're not going anytime soon." He said this with a choked back sob. And then he straightened and to Sebastian he said "C'mon. We need to find a safe spot to get these back on him."

"But what about Blaine?" Sebastian said, lustful feelings bursting forth once again.

"I saw him shut the seat to the trunk." He jerked his head down to the rear pane of glass. "He's safe for right now. They're all distracted with her right now." Indeed, the yhad successfully pulled her through the window and all of them now swarmed the suddenly silent Wendye, leaving enough room for them to get down.

All the while, however, more zombies came from the smells and sounds. They came from storefronts and houses, stumbling through the door like a town drunk. With urgency, Puck jumped down to the ground. "Finn come on down. I've got you."

Finn slumped forward and half jumped, half fell to the ground where he lay slouched over Puck's shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Sebastian jumped down too and the three weaved around the incoming zombies into a nearby store to fix Finn up.

Blaine, on the other hand, wasn't doing as well. He lay stunned in the trunk until his instincts kicked into gear. He fumbled around and thanked the heavens that he found a flashlight in the trunk. Thank God Mr. Schuester was prepared. In the trunk was very little. A laptop bag lay in one corner and a fire extinguisher lay in the opposite side. A roll of duct tape sat nearby and a box of CDs was the last item in the far recesses of the trunk.

He didn't have a clue what to do. Blaine knew the only way out was to hit the button on the trunk outside, but he couldn't reach that; and Finn's torn wrappings eliminated his friends getting him out. Blaine was on his own.

A deep breath of air helped him clear his senses, but he realized that, like being buried alive, air was a precious luxury in a small and enclosed space. Blaine knew the only place to get air and with a couple of kicks to the back, he knocked out one of the rear tail lights. A light breeze rushed in, calming Blaine's claustrophobia. It was small enough that only an arm could make it through, but all the same, he backed away from the opening.

The air helped him think and a thought came to his mind. His arm might be long enough to reach the button, but he didn't like the thought of shoving his hand out in the wide open. Blaine needed an extra defense somehow and he looked around again. The only viable option that he could see was a roll of duct tape. Maybe he could wrap it around his arm a bunch and if anything tried to attack it, they wouldn't be able to penetrate. Blaine felt a lot better with a plan.

The small amount of light stopped the use of the flashlight and Blaine turned it off to conserve the batteries anyway. With a calming ripping sound, he began wrapping the tape around and around him arm and hand, over and over, not letting any of it show. After about ten layers, where mobility of his fingers was an issue, he figured that was good enough. Even in they attacked, he could still pull it back with more time than he'd had with the impromptu cast. To be sure, Blaine bit hard into it. He didn't make it to the skin and he felt a lot better.

A tentative hand found the cool air refreshing, though it was covered in tape. Blaine inched his hand out until it was out to his elbow. He could feel the Toyota logo, meaning he was probably halfway to the button. He felt further and further until a hand wrapped around his arm.

With a yelp, Blaine yanked his arm back in, feeling a mouth futilely bite into the arm. Once fully back in, Blaine felt to make sure there wasn't a single puncture. When there weren't, Blaine looked back and realized that a man's face blocked the hole. He sighed and reached for the gun in his pocket. With his casted hand Blaine reached forward and poked it out into the zombie's mouth. His other hand blocking an ear, he pulled the trigger and the shot rang true and clear, bowling the enemy over. With such a loud sound, he realized that more might come over and he shoved his arm all the way through. His hand blindly slapped around and finally got it and the trunk door flew up.

It was a gory hell outside. Wendye's emaciated body dribbled blood everywhere and what looked like a liver rolled outside of the mosh-pit. Blaine hurried away, dodging incoming zombies and shooting a couple he ran forward to a store and three came out. He yelled and shot one, this time in the heart who fell. He turned to run-

And four more were walking to him. He yelled and realized he was trapped. He shot blindly and knocked two more down. Blaine was pressed against a wall while the remaining four ran to him. He cried out, knowing what was coming. One was upon him, which he pushed away with force. Blaine felt that it was the end until a shot came from above, wiping out two of them. Another one came down and clipped a third and with a leap of faith, Blaine got the fourth one.

Blaine looked up and on the Dollar Tree across the street stood Puck and Sebastian, smiling at their very alive friend (or enemy, in Sebastian's case, but in the moment it didn't matter at all). He ran across the street narrowly missing one and threw open the door to the cheap store. Racks were tossed over and it was in as much disarray as the gun shop. A partially open door in the back led him up two flights of stairs past administrative offices and to the roof.

Puck applauded when Blaine burst forward from the door. The former clapped the latter on the back with a huge smile. "You rocked that dude! That was awesome."

Blaine frowned, shaken from the events. "It didn't feel so great down there."

"Yeah, well you're alive right?" Sebastian said in a snarky tone.

Blaine was about to retort when Finn (who had been slouched on the ground) said "It was pretty neat, Blaine." A half-smile played on his face.

Blaine didn't reply and instead looked over the edge to the ground. The crowd had coming back with around two-hundred of Lima's own wandering around in their daily clothes, hungry for more flesh. He hadn't realized he had passed that many and that impressed him. It also dissuaded any notion of going back down.

"What about the train?" Blaine asked as he turned away from the ugly sight. "We need to get to them."

"Yeah, the train's only a few blocks that way." Puck said with a huge smile. He pointed down the street and a little ways down the train peeked out from the roof of the last house.

"Are we roof-jumping to get there?" Blaine said, forcing himself to smile a little bit. It sounded absurd.

"It's the only way to get to it." Puck chuckled.

Sebastian was tinged with green. "I guess now is not the time to say I'm a little afraid of heights."

Blaine glared at him. "Looks like the impenetrable Smythe is afraid of something. Come on, Sebastian we have to get there."

The four stood at the edge to the adjoining building. It was the same height and only separated by a three-foot wide alleyway. They all jumped across with no difficulty, even Sebastian. A short walk across that building revealed the next one to be a bit of a drop, roughly eight feet or so. Finn looked queasy at landing like that and jumped wildly off the edge and rolled when he landed. He yelled in pain but stumbled up. The rest made it in a similar inept fashion, none of them having been a gymnast.

They continued like this, going up and over buildings' roofs until they reached the little house at the corner. Its roof was slanted fairly steeply but there was a fortuitous fire escape down to the ground from the building they were on. Sebastian groaned. "Why is it always fire escapes?"

"Shut up." Puck growled. Behind them, the crowd had followed them partially, losing them two buildings back behind a sign.

By some miracle, they heard a car in the distance. Praying that it was them, the four leaned forward, desperately clinging on for a glimpse of a van through the streets. Finally, a powder-blue van turned a corner and all of them cheered, even Blaine, who had remained mostly forlorn through a lot of the rooftop trek. The four didn't care about the group of zombies and climbed down the stairs (luckily without a collapsing incident) and the van stopped and opened a door, letting them in before the zombies got there.

"Oh my god, you made it!" Mindy gushed, happy at the group of people who now crowded the van. She hadn't yet realized who was missing.

"Where's Wendye?" Roz asked, worry across her brow.

Puck swallowed in the back of the van. "She, uh… She didn't make it."

A cry of anguish came from Mindy and she stopped driving the car, wiping her eyes. "Oh god… Wendye…"

"What about Finn?" Beiste asked, noting the constant clutching Finn had to his right side.

"He was shot." Blaine sighed, reliving the moment in his head. The van suddenly started forward again, outpacing the oncoming zombies.

"What?!" Roz roared. "Finn is this true?"

In answer, Finn suddenly slipped into unconsciousness. There was a hum of worry as everyone that could fretted over the boy in the middle row. Mindy, still silently weeping, reached the end of the train and almost turned left over the tracks.

Despite the worry over Finn, Roz held her hand out and said "Stop."

Clenching her jaw, Mindy slammed on the brakes. "What now?"

"They like the sound of things have you noticed that?" Roz asked, looking back at the swarm of them hundreds of yards away. "We can't lead them right back to the school."

A dawning look of dread went over Dave's face. "We need to get out of the van."

"Not all of us." Roz said. "We've still got the fainted wonder back there. I'll drive with him back to the school. I'll go quickly and take an indirect route so they don't get there."

"I'm not leaving Finn." Puck said firmly. Roz looked at him and silently agreed.

"Everyone. Out now, before they get here." Roz ordered. Mindy clambered out of the driver's seat and Roz scooted into that position. Blaine, Dave, Beiste, and Sebastian followed Mindy and the five ran across the tracks to the edge of the wooded area.

The last thing that Roz saw as she drove Puck and his dying friend back to the school was a forlorn Blaine looking directly at her, a silent gaze that spoke volumes. She understood that he had seen unspeakable horrors and hated that it had happened to him. Roz nodded and waved to him as he gave a small smile and a nod to her as he followed his group into the forest beyond.

* * *

><p>"So?" Roz asked. "Are they in the school now?"<p>

Emma shook her head worriedly. "No, Roz, they're not here. Maybe they got caught up somewhere."

Dread came like a tidal wave over Roz. None of her plans ended up well today and Wendye (and possibly Blaine, Beiste, Sebastian, Mindy and Dave as well) were all dead because of her. Trying to calm herself, she asked "Well what about that explosion back there? I was driving and I heard some big fiery explosion."

"That was me. I apologize for any sort of problems I made for you all." The man in the army uniform said.

Roz looked up, suddenly realizing the new person. The two looked at each other for a long moment, then she looked away and asked Sue "Who the hell is this?"

Sue cleared her throat and said "This is Jared Macready. He was a pilot for the military and decided to… Abdicate his position and come here with us."

Roz humphed in frustration but said nothing. Right now all she wanted was the rest of the group to make it back alive. Exasperated, she sighed and walked to the school. "What now?" she yelled to the people behind her.

"I guess all we can do is wait." Burt said.

* * *

><p>Beiste had led them through a neighborhood nearby to the town. They five of them crossed a street and were now at the top of a small hill. In the distance, they could see McKinley. Mindy smiled, exhausted by the day's events.<p>

"Just a little ways more." Beiste said with a grin. She clapped Dave on the back and together the group pressed forward, wanting only to make it back.

As much as they all enjoyed Lima for its wooded areas and green views, in an apocalyptic setting, it was not the most ideal situation. In some cases, the trek was slow-going but fortunately this final stretch seemed forgiving.

Just as soon as they walked into the brush, they heard a noise in the sky. All of them craned their necks upwards, trying to see the source of the airplane-like sounds. "It sounds like military planes from movies." Sebastian said, urging the group to continue to move forward.

"Maybe it is. Maybe they'll sort this thing out." Dave said hopefully. "A guy can't live on Uncrustables and milk forever."

_I doubt it._ Blaine though, optimism having left him long ago. All he wanted right now was to let Kurt soothe him and wrap his arms around him. Kurt would make him feel better almost instantly, but a sinking feeling in his gut told him that wouldn't happen for a long time.

"Yeah, well-" Mindy began, before being bowled over by an incoming figure. They had all been so preoccupied with the planes (which, had they looked up, a plane flying out of formation would have been seen) that they hadn't heard the person running through the underbrush. Mindy yelled and pushed the girl off of her.

"Quinn?" Dave asked, surprised. She would have been the last girl he'd have thought to run into them like that.

Indeed, it was the blonde cheerleader. Her short hair was disheveled from the impact and her face was wild. Mindy grumbled and got up. "Seriously, is there any one here you _don't _know?"

Quinn swore under her breath. "Yes, well… I wasn't expecting to see any of you here."

"Quinn, honey." Beiste said soothingly. Her hand reached out for Quinn's bare arm, which was covered in scratches and bruises. "We can take you back and fix you up." She also wondered what Quinn was doing out here, but that wasn't important at the moment.

The runaway frowned before saying "I don't want to go back there. I ran away-"

But they didn't get to find out why she ran away. With a deafening roar, one of the military planes flew to the earth and crashed through the canopy in a ball of flame. All of the people below yelled in terror, but the explosion tossed them before they could do anything about it. Beiste and Quinn were thrown the farthest, all the way back a couple hundred feet. Dave was thrown the opposite way but almost just as far as them. Sebastian was tossed end over end and his head landed with a sickening crunch on a rock. Blaine and Mindy were thrown headlong into an enormous tree's trunk. Some part of the former realized that his wrist was bleeding but, just like everyone else that was tossed like ragdolls, he slipped away into unconsciousness.

* * *

><p>Hardly recognizing reality from unconsciousness, Blaine's eyes drifted partly open. He could see distantly that a crowd of zombies were getting mown down by a group in a large truck. It was now night; the clearing would have been very dark if there wasn't a burning shell of a plane in the middle of it.<p>

There was a hum as the car drove around, inspecting the bodies of his friends. He heard them say something and the sound of their bodies hitting the truck bed.

Blaine almost blacked out again, but the last thing he saw was a large face come very close to his. There was a flash of light and he was out.

* * *

><p><strong>Hate to leave you all with <strong>_**another **_**cliffhanger, but they are oh-so-fun to write. This chapter was huge as it was my first foray into a real zombie-hunting experience. It went through a ton of re-writes and edits until I came out with this! **

**I hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, please be sure to review it, favorite it, follow it, whatever you want! But a review would be nice :) **


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